Red Biotic
by Admiral Kunkka
Summary: Cerebus sends Miranda on a mission to bring back the chakra of Naruto's planet. A mysterious group known as the Blue Novas have allied with Danzo and stand in her way. Naruto/Miranda. Beware: lots of lemons
1. Day 0

Hi guys, thanks for reading my story. The italicized text represents thoughts.

As you may know, my story was posted earlier but vanished. I could explain why but it's easier just to say it won't happen again.

This takes place right before the chunnin exams but the battle between the Sand and Leaf doesn't happen for the purposes of this story. Furthermore, Naruto is 16 in this story (everyone is older not just Naruto). Since he is older, he is much more mature than he was at the same point in the manga/anime. Sakura has already begun learning medical jutsu. Sasuke and several other major characters of the naruto universe aren't present in this story. Unlike canon Miranda, this one isn't sterile.

Red biotic

Day 0:

-Cerebus head quarters

Miranda closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying one last time to calm herself before entering. Moments ago she had been frantically rushing towards the Illusive Man's office, accidentally knocking over some unknown technician as she whipped around the final corner. Standing in front of his office, she was now overcome by a paralyzing fear. "_Does the Illusive Man know? Would he tell me if he did? Maybe he will let it go_" Miranda entered the room. She wanted to spend a few more minutes thinking, but her subconscious had betrayed her, thrusting her into the room to end the unbearable waiting.

With the exception of her reflection in the mirror, the room was completely empty.Minutes passed as Miranda watched her reflection, admiring how calm she looked despite the situation. Her reflection jumped as the hologram appeared.

"Miranda, I have a mission for you. It's an extraordinarily dangerous one but it's of the utmost important."

"What is the nature of this mission and why was I told to keep it a secret?"

"The mission is confidential; even after its completion only a handful of people will know about it."

"What is this mission?"

"We have recently discovered a planet with biotics unlike anything we have ever seen. In truth, I'm not sure if we can really call them biotics. Their biotic-like powers stem from something called chakra. Molding this "chakra" allows them to perform feats similar to what our biotics are capable of. However…. their form of biotics is far more powerful than ours."

"Why haven't we heard of them before? A novel form of biotics should have caught someone's attention long ago."

"The planet is in the neutral zone between our systems and the Terminus Systems. Furthermore, there are no mass effect relays anywhere near it."

"So it's off the beaten path of galactic civilization."

"Precisely." The Illusive man paused, seeming lost in thought. "Moving back to your mission. You will travel to this planet, find the strongest chakra user you can, and reproduce with him. Then we wipe out the planet. No one will ever know that it existed and once your child is born we will have a monopoly on the new type of chakra."

Miranda didn't react at first. The Illusive Man always put the goals of Cerebus first, second and third, with morals a distant fourth… if he ever considered them at all. But even for him, this seemed excessive.

Then again, Miranda wasn't exactly concerned with morals at the moment. "_Did he find out? Is this mission his way of saying that he did_?"

"Why do we have to wipe out the planet? Why not just capture a bunch of these chakra users and leave?"

"No one else knows of this planet but we don't know how long this will last. An advantage is only an advantage if you're the only one who has it. If everyone obtains the special chakra then our having it will be pointless. Establishing a monopoly on this new form of biotic power is essential. That's why this mission is top secret and that's why we are going to destroy the planet after you reproduce with one of its citizens."

"This seems excessive. Even if we do gain an advantage, destroying an entire planet could turn the citadel against us."

"They already are against us."

"They're against us in theory, but they turn a blind eye on a lot of our activities, they're preferred method of dealing with us is to ignore us. This could turn them more actively against us, even given the potential rewards, it just doesn't seem worth it."

"Miranda, you're an excellent follower, but you're just that, a follower. You don't see the big picture and you don't make the big decisions. Other than me, no one in this organization sees the big picture, and no one else in this organization has the intelligence, vision and force of will to run Cerebus. You're just going to have to trust me, we need to complete this mission."

"With all do respect, I've achieved a massive amount for this…"

"You have basked in the light radiating off of me. My ambitions are unlimited, beyond the scale of what can be achieved by one man. You can't fully understand my ambitions but you have stayed with this organization for a long time, so you clearly agree with my philosophy on some level. If my goals are to be achieved, this mission needs to be achieved."

Miranda was opposed to the destruction of the planet but she wasn't exactly in a position to let her morals guide her. It was entirely possible that the Illusive Man would execute her for her crime if she refused his mission.

"Are you going to play along or do we have a problem?" Miranda looked towards the floor, avoiding the Illusive man's harsh gaze.

"I accept the mission."

"Good, I'll give you a more in depth briefing tomorrow."

The Illusive Man vanished as quickly as he had arrived.

Miranda went back to her quarters and slept. She had long since figured out that when the Illusive Man gives you disagreeable orders, you follow them and look happy while doing it.

In her dreams she was looking down on a small room, watching herself talk to a young man she didn't recognize. There was no sound in this dream, leaving her to guess at the nature of the conversation by their expressions. Miranda and the young man conversed for several minutes, laughing and gesturing as if they were close friends. Miranda smiled at the young man and licked her lips. He suddenly took off his clothes. Miranda's smile took on a wicked nature as she slipped off her own clothes, climbed onto the bed and spread her legs. The only mar on Miranda's perfect body was the emblem of Cerebus emblazoned on her stomach. The young man lay down on top of her, covering the Cerebus symbol. His wiry frame rested comfortably on her soft body as he slowly penetrated her. There were no words in this dream, only thrusts and blurred out faces. The young man's face contorted as he came inside her. The two lay together silently, sleeping in each other's arms. The Cerebus symbol appeared on his back, filling the room with an ominous red.

Miranda sat up, she could only vaguely remember the dream but the image of a boy with a blurred out face remained in her mind. It both aroused and disturbed her and she had no idea why.

The next morning, she tried her best to look busy, hoping that no one would talk to her as she walked around Cerebus headquarters. She glanced at her watch, _"Looks like it's time to meet the Illusive Man again."_

The hologram appeared the instant she entered the room.

"You will be leaving for your mission in two weeks, make sure all preparations have been made. It is critical that you blend in, so you won't be bringing any advanced technology. I have spent a great deal of time studying their culture and ultimately… I don't think you will be able to convince them that you have always lived there. To work around this obstacle, you will pretend to have suffered a severe head trauma that wiped out your memory, this will explain your lack of knowledge about their society. Hopefully they won't investigate you too closely."

"I doubt I can make them believe I have suffered head trauma."

"You can't, but this can." The Illusive Man held up a small green pill. "This will make you show signs of just having suffered a major blow to the head, it will make you woozy and cause external bruising, it should be enough for them to buy it."

"Do you know where you are sending me?"

"Yes that is already planned. We are sending you to a region known as the fire country. It contains a large village that the natives call Konoha. It has a high population density and lots of chakra users. It's the perfect place to carry out the mission." He paused, "I have time for one last question"

"Why only send one person? Why not send a whole team?"

"Like I said, secrecy is everything. You are a powerful biotic with customized perfect genetics, you are the best candidate for this mission."

"Will there be backup if I need it?"

He was already gone.

"I guess that's a no."

Miranda spent the next several days reading over the files the Illusive Man had put together, studying the culture, history and customs of Konoha every waking minute. As the days passed by, Miranda grew increasingly restless, spending less of her time studying and reflecting on whether or not she even cared about this mission.

Miranda opened her eyes on the morning of the fifth day, staring at the ceiling with a blank mind. "_Time for day five_." Her eyes slowly closed as she felt her resolve slipping away. "_Fuck it, I'll learn about their culture when I get there. As for the mission… my opinions don't matter since I have no choice anyways_."

Miranda stepped into the cryogenic sleep machine, setting it to wake her in 10 days.

10 days later.

Miranda boarded the shuttle that would take her to the new world. The cloaked vessel would drop her off in the forest outside Konoha, then it would leave and she would have no more contact with the outside world. The Illusive Man said that he would contact her after 14 days for a status report; hopefully she would be done with the mission by then. She was still opposed to the mission, but the Illusive Man wasn't one to be argued with. She ignored her conscience and carried on with the mission. Entered cryogenic sleep as the vessel raced off into the depths of space.

-5 miles above Konoha

A robotic voice interrupted her dreamless sleep.

"Landing in five minutes."

She could see the ground far below as she looked out the clear walls of the shuttle.

"_Strange for a planet this large to go unnoticed for this long."_

"Landing in three minutes."

The forest she was landing in came into view. She had extensively studied Konoha's surroundings so navigating through it shouldn't be a problem.

"Landing in one minute."

The ship slowly lowered itself into the forest, landing without making a sound.

"We have arrived at our destination."

The ship took off the moment Miranda stepped outside.

"_And here I am, on a mission to redeem myself. Maybe. She still didn't know if the Illusive Man knew of her crime but she decided it was best to stop thinking about it."_

It suddenly hit her, _"Does the Illusive Man really expect me to complete this mission in 14 days. I mean… I appreciate the confidence, but that isn't much time."_

She walked towards Konoha, looking at the massive trees and unpolluted sky.

"_It's so peaceful here. There's nothing like this left on Earth."_

Miranda instinctively froze. There were people in the distance. She hid behind a tree and observed them, looking over their clothes then glancing down at her own.

"_Seems like he did a good job mimicking the style of Konoha."_

She waited until they passed then continued towards Konoha, stopping to swallow the pill once she was within site of the main gates. The ground rose up to meet her.


	2. Day 1 and 2

Day 1 and 2:

-Konoha hospital

Miranda's eyes opened. She tried looking around but everything was blurry and her head was ringing.

"Where am I….?"

She tried to sit up but was too disoriented.

"_Is this the Cerebus hospital…?"_

"Hello, miss…., miss can you hear me?"

Miranda turned to see a pink haired woman looking over her.

"Yes I can hear you. Where am I?"

"You're in the Konoha general hospital, you have been unconscious for twelve hours. We found you lying face down near the main gate"

Suddenly it all came back to her. She had taken the pill that the Illusive Man gave her_. "Guess he didn't want to take on chance on bad acting skills."_ She felt her head and as he had promised, there was a huge bruise on the left side of her forehead.

"So…. what village are you from?"

Miranda stared at her blankly

Saying it louder and slower "Where…. Are….. You….. From….?"

"I… Uhh… don't know."

"What is your name?"

"Miranda"

The pink haired woman stared at her, then looked at her bruise.

"How did you get that nasty bruise? That's probably why you were unconscious."

"I don't remember. I don't remember anything."

The pink haired woman sighed then walked away. She reappeared with a skinny blonde haired woman.

The pink haired woman spoke, "Your physical condition is stable and the bruise seems to be the only damage you have sustained. We would normally release you but we can't do that without identifying you."

The pink haired woman reached her hand out. "I'm Sakura and this is Ino. Can you get up or do you need a hand?"

Miranda got off her bed and stood up. She was a little dizzy but basically had all her motor skills back.

The two women began walking, gesturing for Miranda to follow.

"_Where they are taking me? I need to find a way to get away from them." _

Miranda followed, thinking it wasn't the best time to make a run for it. She was led into a small room with no windows. A man spoke to her.

"My name is Inoichi Yamanaka. We suspect that you suffered massive brain trauma and have temporarily lost your memory. I will be performing several tests on you to determine where you are from so we can return you to your village."

He pointed to a bench, motioning for Miranda to sit.

"I'll just be one minute."

He cracked his fingers as he finished his paperwork, slowly walking over to her, "Are you ready."

"Ready as I will be."

His hands felt cold as he placed them on her forehead. Miranda opened her mouth to speak, passing out before she could say anything.

Several minutes passed.

Miranda jolted awake, her vision quickly coming into focus. Inoichi, Sakura and Ino were all staring at her.

"I was unable to determine what village you are from. The images I saw in your mind were very confusing. I saw a see-through man with strange blue eyes speaking to you… and I saw what looked to be outer space. Except you were in outer space, not on the ground looking up."

"_Wow this planet really does have amazing biotics. He saw the Illusive Man and probably my view of space from the shuttle."_

"Uhh… I don't really know what to tell you. Maybe your abilities aren't working correctly?"

Sakura spoke, "Is it possible that the head trauma is altering her mind?"

Inoichi thought for a second, "Yes maybe…. I have never tried to read someone's mind right after a severe blow to the head. I'll leave her in your care Sakura, I don't think she is dangerous. Bring her back in a week and I will try again."

Miranda left with Sakura. "I actually don't have time to watch over you but I will take you to someone who has an abundant amount of time on his hands. He is kind of an idiot… but a good person at heart."

_"Well this is going fairly well. It looks like my mission won't be too difficult after all."_

"So…. am I going to be held in custody or I am free to walk around the city?"

"You will be free. We don't think you are a spy so there is no reason to constantly monitor you. However, you won't be allowed to leave the village until we determine your identity."

They reached a small apartment, Sakura knocked on the door.

"Naruto! Naruto are you in there!?"

She barged in.

"Naruto!"

Two eyes peered out from under the covers, staring at Sakura with a dazed look.

"Why didn't you come to the door!?"

"I was asleep. Why are you here?"

"This is Miranda, you have to watch over her. She banged her head and lost her memory so you need to watch her for a week until we can run more tests on her."

He was asleep. "Naruto!" Sakura punched him clear off the bed and into the wall. Shaking him, "This is Miranda, you have to watch over her. She banged her head and lost her memory so you need to watch her until we can run more tests on her. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it."

Sakura stormed out of the room and Naruto went back to sleep.

_"Well, looks like I can have a few hours to myself."_

Her eyes adjusted to the noon sun as she left the dim apartment. _"They must not care if I escape if this is their idea of "security"_ She looked around_ "It doesn't look like I'm being followed. So… where should I go? I might as well walk while I think." _The main street was teaming with people, ninjas and civilians alike. _"Wow, this is almost as densely populated as some of the smaller cities of earth, that's impressive for such a primitive culture. Maybe they're a bit more advanced than the Illusive Man led me to believe" _Miranda closed her eyes, thinking of the Illusive man brought unpleasant thoughts to mind._ "I never did find out if he knows about what I did." _Images of the fateful day flashed through her mind. The terrified look in her sister's eyes as her captors presented her. She was bound and gagged, scared out of her mind but smart enough not to try anything. Miranda nearly punched a hole in her holo-screen, desperate to strike out as her sister's captors made their demands from some unknown location. Miranda breathed deeply, trying to expel the thought from her mind. But that smell… the awful chemical smell… the taste of iron in air... that god forsaken corner of Omega where she handed over the files containing the location of the Cerebus fleet in exchange for her sister. She knew what fate would await her if the Illusive man found out, but it didn't matter. "What's done is done. Oriana is safe and now I'm half way across the universe. He may know or he may not, but either way he won't do anything to me until 9 months after I complete this mission. Two more deep breaths, and then Miranda regained her calm.

Several hours passed as Miranda lazily walked through the streets of Konoha, taking in the sights and smells of this bizarre but somehow endearing city. "_This place is a little different, but still fundamentally the same as any other city, albeit significantly less advanced._"

Just as that thought crossed her mind a young man running on his hands and wearing an unbelievably tight green jumpsuit plowed into her.

"I'm sorry!"

"Oh it's no proble"

Bang! A full grown man running on his hands and wearing the same hideous green jumpsuit plowed into her and knocked her off her feet.

"I'm sorry!" The younger one spoke up,

"The springtime of youth is upon us and we are training our hardest!"

"Lee! You must continue your training!" And with that the two jumpsuit wearing companions continued down the road, running on their hands and yelling about the springtime of youth. _"Okay… so maybe this culture isn't THAT civilized."_ Miranda continued down the main road for several hundred yards watching out for more jumpsuit wearing freaks. _"Hmm, those are the city gates."_ Miranda paused, _"Just for the heck of it, I'll see if they truly have no one watching me." _Miranda passed through the gates without even having to identify herself. _"Wow, I kind of assumed that someone would come and stop me. I'm almost insulted that they didn't bother assigning someone other than that useless boy to watch over me."_ Miranda walked a ways into the forest and sat down in the shade of a large tree. Just as she was beginning to doze off she heard a voice. "Nice day for a walk."

"_Was someone already here? I didn't see anyone."_

"Yeah it's a beautiful day; don't have many days like this where I'm from."

"O, where are you from?"

"_Crap, shouldn't have said that."_ "Well… it's a long story. I actually just suffered a severe head trauma, so I'm not really sure where I'm from."

"You're still sticking with that story. Look, I don't care if you're from some country that Konoha doesn't get along with, I won't rat you out."

"_Still sticking with this story… have I talked to this person before?"_

Miranda walked around the tree to see who it was. "How did you get here!? You were sound asleep when I left, how did you find me!?"

"I still am asleep. Well…. my true body is still asleep. I have dozens of clones of myself all over the city." He smiled up at her, his stupid orange jacket and bright yellow hair were beginning to piss off Miranda. "So even if I'm asleep, don't try anything funny." *poof* and like that, the clone was gone.

"I guess I underestimated him quite a bit." Miranda spent the rest of the day walking around the city, talking to its citizens and taking in the sights. When night fell she returned to Naruto's apartment and went to sleep on a mat that was spread out in the corner.

Miranda awoke the next morning, "Ugg… I haven't slept on a bed that uncomfortable since…. well…. ever." As she stood up and stretched out she realized that Naruto hadn't moved at all. "Jesus does he sleep all day?" She slapped him on the chest, "Are you a clone too?" Naruto sprung out of bed, nearly hitting his face on the ceiling. "Oh no! I'm late for the tournament!" He ripped off his clothes as if he didn't notice that Miranda was there then proceeded to put on an identical orange jumpsuit before bursting out the apartment.

_"Is everyone in this city so bizarre or am I just lucky enough to run into all the strange ones." _Miranda walked out the door and immediately noticed that everyone in the street seemed to be heading the same direction. _"Is there something over there? O right, Naruto said something about a tournament before he bolted out the door. I bet that's where everybody is heading."_ She followed the crowd all the way to the gigantic arena, gasping as the massive coliseum came into view. _"Wow, this must be quite the event, it seems like the entire city is here."_ She continued following the river of people, eventually finding herself a seat on the second balcony.

An announcerwalked out into the arena. "And for the first match… we have… Uzumaki Naruto versus….. Hyuga Neji!" The crowd exploded into applause. Someone a few seats over snickered, "Heh, do think Neji will beat him in under or over one minute?" the man next to him responded,

"Neji has a cruel streak. If he wants to drag the match on it could last for a while."

"_Damn, Naruto seemed pretty strong to me, this Neji person must be amazing if he is even stronger than Naruto. Actually… this tournament will probably be a great place to look for a suitable "partner". I wonder if this Neji person is someone I should be interested in." _

"First match of the chunnin exam….. begins now!"

Miranda watched the fight intently, mainly focusing on Neji to see if he would be a suitable partner to accomplish her mission with. Everything about him impressed her. He seemed perfect, so far above Naruto that he almost didn't notice him. Miranda was interrupted mid thought as Neji assumed a stance, froze, then launched an attack at Naruto. His blows moved faster than her eyes could see but by the end of it, Naruto was on the ground and seemed unable to get up_. "He really is superior. I never imagined that I would find my target so quickly. Hmm... but how to go about pulling off my mission. Accomplishing the mission in a consensual manner would take months, if not longer, accomplishing it in a less than consensual manner might be even harder given how strong he is. Of course... I do have biotics if I have to use them, but that almost feels like cheating. Then again, I don't have any problem with cheating to achieve my goals so it might be the best solution." _Miranda suddenly realized that she had been lost in thought and hadn't watched the end of the match. But…. something didn't make sense. Why was Neji on the ground… and why was Naruto being congratulated as the victor? _"Is this some kind of joke? What the fuck happened?"_

"Wow! Did you see that!? That was amazing! Neji didn't stand a chance."

"Yeah, I've heard rumors about Naruto having the nine-tails sealed inside him, I always assumed it was just gossip but now I think it might be true."

"_Nine-tails…what's that? The Illusive Man's logs didn't tell me anything about a 'nine-tails.' Maybe this is something I should look into." _

Miranda watched the rest of the matches before following the crowd out of the stadium_._ None of the other competitors were anywhere near as impressive as Neji, who had apparently lost to Naruto while Miranda wasn't paying attention._ "Hmm… where would I find information about this 'nine-tails?' I guess I'll ask if there's a library somewhere."_

"Excuse me sir, could you direct me to the nearest library?"

"Yeah sure, walk to that large red building then take a right and it will be the fifth building on your left."

"Thanks a lot."

Miranda ran to the library. She still had 13 days to complete the mission but she wanted to complete it as fast as possible_. "Can't waste any time, the Illusive Man doesn't accept failure. I still don't know my fate but impressing him can only help." _

Miranda burst into the library.

"Excuse me miss, do you know where I can find information on the nine-tails?"

The librarian went about her business, clearly pretending that she didn't hear the question.

"Miss… Excuse me, do you know where I can find information on the nine-tails?"

The librarian turned to her, she was clenching her fists and obviously didn't want to answer.

"Umm… no I have never heard of such a thing."

_ "That seems unlikely… O well, she probably won't tell me even if I pester her, I'll just go look myself"_

Miranda walked off and began to aimlessly search through the library herself. After 20 minutes of getting no where she sighed and leaned her back against the wall.

A raspy voice spoke to her

"I hear you're looking for the nine-tails."

Miranda whipped her head around to look at the man speaking to her. "Yes… I am. Can you help me?" The man had gaunt skin and bandages covering much of his face. Even to Miranda, who had witnessed all forms of terrible people and creatures, this man was somehow deeply unsettling.

"I am known as Danzo. I am not well liked around here so it is best not to tell anyone of your association with me."

"My association with you? We have only exchanged a few words."

"Yes, but we will do much more than that. You seek the nine-tails, I can't divine what is driving you to seek it, but I can tell that you have a malevolent purpose. Just knowing that, I will aid you in your mission."

"_Who is this guy? He can't possibly know anything about my mission, he is just bluffing."_

"How can you aid me?"

"With information. The nine-tails is a massive, unbelievably powerful beast made solely out of chakra. Its wrath knows no bounds and it nearly destroyed our village once. It is currently sealed inside Naruto."

"Ouch!" Danzo accidently pricked Miranda during one of his exaggerated hand gestures as he attempted to convey the enormous destructive power of the nine-tails.

"Why is it sealed inside Naruto? Why does it have to be sealed in a person at all?"

"The nine-tails is one of nine tailed beasts. For the beasts to be contained they must be stored in "containers" known as jinchuuriki. However, even among jinchuuriki, Naruto is special. He is the only person alive capable of containing the nine-tails. He bears a special bloodline that allows him to contain the powerful red chakra of the nine-tails."

"Is his being a jinchuuriki related to how he defeated Neji in the tournament?"

"I didn't watch the tournament but I would assume so. Before the endless power of the nine-tails, even the mighty Hyuga bloodline is helpless."

"Well…. Thanks for your help, I guess."

"_His logic is very suspicious, why is he helping me so easily? Fortunately, it sounds like I found my target, this red chakra that he spoke of sounds like it has extraordinary potential in the hands of Cerebus."_

The two parted ways. Miranda glanced back at Danzo as he exited the library. _"He's probably plotting something. Good thing I'll be gone long before I have to begin worrying about him."_

Miranda walked back to Naruto's apartment and sat down on the mat she had slept on the day before. She stayed up late into the night plotting her next moves, eventually falling asleep with a smile on her face.


	3. Day 3

Day 3:

-Naruto's apartment

Miranda awoke to the sound of pouring rain. Naruto was sprawled out across the bed wearing the same orange jumpsuit he had fought Neji in. "_In a strange sort of way, he is kinda cute. This could be fun."_ She tip-toed across his bedroom, quietly opened the door to the bathroom and peered inside. There were clothes scattered everywhere, which was to be expected given the state of the rest of his apartment. What was worrisome was the fact that his wardrobe seemed to consist entirely of that horrendous orange jumpsuit. "_Well… at least he is consistent_."

Miranda stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower, jumping backwards as the unexpectedly cold water startled her, "_This planet clearly hasn't invented instant water heaters_." When the water warmed she stepped in and began to think. "_Despite being amazingly strong, Naruto doesn't appear to have any friends. Other than Sakura dropping me off, no one has come to his apartment. Even after beating Neji, no one came to congratulate him_." Miranda bent over to pick up a frog shaped bar of soap. "_His loneliness might make seducing him a lot easier_." A feeling of guilt swept over Miranda but she quickly dispelled it and carried on with her plan. As she began soaping herself up Miranda's hand traveled up her stomach, briefly lifting one of her large breasts and marveling at the pleasant weight of it. "_Well I guess my genetically perfect body will come in handy_."

Miranda turned off the water but didn't get out of the shower. She looked at her finger and focused, causing the tip to turn blue and allowing her to telekinetically poke Naruto in the face. She heard Naruto sit up, get out of bed and walk towards the bathroom. "_This will be like taking candy from a baby_." Naruto entered the bathroom and walked over the sink, apparently unaware of Miranda's presence. Miranda suddenly stepped out of the shower, soaking wet and completely nude. Naruto turned his head towards her, dropping his toothbrush as he caught sight of her. She pretended to be embarrassed but purposely took several seconds to cover herself as Naruto gawked.

"O my god! I'm really sorry about that, I didn't hear you enter the bathroom." A red faced Naruto stammered out something to the effect of "no problem" before quickly turning around and dashing out of the bathroom. "_Well that seemed to have the desired effect_." Miranda dressed herself and left the bathroom. Naruto was sitting on the edge of the bed looking rather uncomfortable. The only sound in the room was the pouring rain.

"Sorry, I didn't hear the shower running."

"Don't worry about it, it's no problem."

Miranda sat down next to Naruto. "So what are you up to today? I'm sure people must want to hangout with you after watching you defeat Neji."

"Uhh… no not really, Sakura or Kakashi will probably congratulate me, but I doubt anyone else will. I'll probably end up training all day."

"Wow, you must be really dedicated, that's impressive. Actually… I don't have any plans for the day so do you mind if I tag along?"

"Um… I guess not, it'll be pretty boring to watch though."

"Well I'm sure it'll be better than nothing."

Miranda waited for Naruto to prepare himself then walked out the door after him, following him to his training spot deep in the woods. The rain had stopped, which made the awkward silence that had followed them from Naruto's apartment more noticeable. They arrived at a clearing in the woods and Naruto immediately began his rigorous training. Miranda looked around, taking note of the kunai scars on the trees and burnt grass.

"How long have you been training here?"

"Since before I graduated from the academy. I like it, it's peaceful"

"Is there any reason why you picked this area? I don't think you need to travel quiet this far into the woods to find a peaceful clearing."

Naruto was silent for a while, but he eventually spoke. "When I first started training here everybody hated me. Training here was how I escaped from all that. I chose a spot this far in the woods so I would be completely free of all the people who made my life miserable."

"Is there any reason why you still come here?

"Mainly habit at this point."

Miranda sat down on a tree stump and looked down, watching a caterpillar walk across her feet. "_I wonder if "habit" is the real reason why he comes here? It's likely that he comes here because he still doesn't have any friends_. _O well I shouldn't get to attached, just focus on the mission_" Miranda looked up, watching Naruto train, hoping to gain some insight into how he defeated Neji. "_Should I ask him about the nine-tails? No… that would be suspicious, I'm supposedly just a random civilian, I shouldn't even know about the nine-tails_." Miranda didn't learn anything about the nine-tails but she did learn two other important pieces of information. 1) The only thing more painful than doing 500 squats, 1,000 pushups and 2,000 sit-ups, is the boredom of watching someone else do 500 squats, 1,000 pushups and 2,000 sit-ups. 2) Naruto seemed to be unnaturally driven for someone his age, it reminded her of herself at that age.

After what seemed like an eternity Miranda finally asked Naruto how much longer he was going to be. He paused then told her that he was about 1/3 done.

"_Holy shit, maybe I really should have done something else today_." 20 minutes of counting the beads of sweat on Naruto's forehead, did little to cure Miranda's boredom. "_I could tell him that he looks strong enough already and that training more will only fatigue his body. No… he is too dedicated and stubborn for that to work. I could try sighing and looking excessively bored, passive aggression is always a good solution. But he is way too unobservant and socially clueless for that to work. What to do…_?" Images of dirty ramen bowls lying around his room filled her mind. "_It's a long shot, but he does appear to have an unnatural love for ramen_."

"Hey Naruto, I'm kinda hungry do you wana eat?"

In a labored voice Naruto responded, "I can't eat until I'm finished training."

"I saw ramen packages all over your room. Do you wana go get ramen somewhere?"

Just as Miranda finished her sentence it began to rain again.

"Looks like the rain found us again. You sure you don't want to go get ramen."

Naruto hesitated, "I guess I've done enough for the day, so sure why not."

The two ran together towards Ichiraku Ramen Bar, dodging the citizens of Konoha as they charged down the street. As they approached it, Teuchi waved and called out to Naruto. Ayame was already preparing ramen in preparation for his order.

"So Naruto, are you going to introduce me to your new friend?"

"O yeah, sorry, the thought of ramen excited me so much that I forgot. This is Miranda, she is new to Konoha so I'm showing her around."

"Well you made a great choice, you can't give someone a tour of Konoha without taking them to the best ramen bar in the fire nation."

"This was actually her idea."

"Well I guess she has great taste." Teuchi turned towards Miranda.

"So what brings you to Konoha?" Miranda began to speak but Naruto interrupted.

"She is from a small village to the east of Konoha, they were recently attacked and she was sent to try and get help from Konoha."

Teuchi laughed, "And you're the help? I'm not sure if that's a blessing or a curse. Well, at least that explains why such a beautiful woman is walking around with you." Naruto looked like he was about to leap over the table and strangle Teuchi.

Ayame spoke up, "Father! Naruto is a great ninja and I'm sure he will be very helpful to them. Won't you Naruto."

"Yes, I definitely will." Teuchi and Naruto filled the next several minutes with small talk as the two of them finished eating. At the end of the meal Naruto stood and offered to pay, which was fortunate because Miranda didn't have any money that was accepted on this planet. Ayame smiled and waved as the two left the ramen bar.

"So father, do you think they're a couple?"

Teuchi laughed, "Not a chance, no way Naruto could land a woman like that."

In spite of Teuchi's opinion, Miranda and Naruto did unintentionally look somewhat like a couple as they walked back towards Naruto's apartment.

It was pouring now, but despite that the walk back to Naruto's apartment was much more pleasant than the walk away from it that morning. As soon as they were a good distance away from the ramen bar Miranda spoke up.

"Thanks for lying for me Naruto. Explaining the actual situation would have been complicated."

"No problem, I figured people might be suspicious of you if they knew that you were an unidentified foreigner."

Naruto saw Miranda shivering and the two increased their pace, quickly arriving at Naruto's apartment. Naruto opened the door and let Miranda in first, taking note of her soaking wet clothes.

"So… any chance you have a change of clothes?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't."

"You can borrow something of mine." Naruto smiled, "Don't worry, I have clothes besides orange jumpsuits."

Naruto opened his closet, taking out a pair of shorts and a white t-shirt with a giant green toad face on the front.

"Is this good?"

"Yeah that's fine. Thanks a lot."

Miranda went into the bathroom, taking off her clothes and slipping on the frog shirt. It was rather ridiculous looking but Naruto was the only one who would see her so she didn't care. She tried to put the shorts on but her hips were too wide for them. "_I guess this will have to do_." She had almost completely forgotten that she was supposed to be seducing Naruto but standing in her underwear reminded her. "_Well, this will help with that particular aspect of the mission I guess_." Miranda walked out of the bathroom wearing Naruto's shirt and her own underwear.

"Your shorts didn't fit, I hope you don't mind if I walk around like this."

Naruto blushed, "Of course not."

"_At least the awkwardness is slightly less intense than this morning_."

Miranda sat next to Naruto on the bed, the two made small talk for the rest of the afternoon and into the night. Miranda could see Naruto checking her out every time he thought she wasn't looking. Eventually, Naruto gathered enough courage to put his hand on her bare leg only a few inches below her panties. Miranda pretended not to notice, continuing the conversation as if nothing had happened. After several more hours of talking, Naruto finally asked Miranda if she had really lost her memory.

"Yes, I really did lose it. I'm hoping that it comes back soon but I'm worried that it might not. I like Konoha but I don't belong here, I need to return to my original village, wherever that is." It pained her to lie to Naruto but she couldn't compromise the mission.

"Your story seems pretty unlikely but for some reason I believe you. I'm a pretty good judge of character and I don't think your lying."

Naruto yawned, "I'm getting pretty tired, I think I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Yeah, me too." Miranda paused. "That mat was pretty uncomfortable, do you mind if I sleep in your bed?" It was her most aggressive push yet, but based on Naruto's ogling of her body she didn't think he would reject her.

Naruto seemed stunned, it took him several moments to manage a comprehensible sentence.

"Yeah, that's fine with me. Just don't hog the sheets."

Naruto took off his orange jumpsuit and climbed under the covers.

"Your frog boxers match my frog t-shirt."

Naruto turned his head to see the frog shirt tossed on the floor and Miranda getting under the covers wearing only a bra and underwear. He soon learned that it was difficult to sleep with a raging erection.


	4. Day 4

Day 4:

-Naruto's apartment

Miranda woke to the sound of birds chirping, it was early in the morning and Naruto was still asleep. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light as she sat up, quietly getting out of bed. "_I'm making great progress, I only met Naruto 48 hours ago and we're already sleeping in the same bed. But great isn't good enough, the Illusive Man will only be impressed if I complete the mission so quickly that even he is surprised_." Miranda stared at the ceiling for a while, knowing what to do but not sure if she was ready to do it. "_I stuck my toe in the water, might as well jump in_."

She wasted no time getting to work, slipping off her bra and underwear and tossing them under the bed as she partially slid under the covers. Her finger briefly glowed blue as she used biotic powers to gently nudge Naruto awake.

"Hey there, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah I slept great."

Naruto sat up and began to say something, stopping abruptly as Miranda's voluptuous breasts came into view.

"O I'm sorry, I was hot last night so I shed some clothing. You don't mind do you?"

"N, n, no that's fine."

Miranda and Naruto talked for a few minutes. His sentences weren't particularly well thought out, probably because 99% of his attention was focused on her breasts. Miranda let Naruto stare for a few more minutes then got out of bed, causing Naruto's jaw to almost fall off its hinge. The sight of nude Miranda walking around his room was enough to make Naruto's hands start shaking. She walked right up to Naruto's side of the bed, making small talk with him as she stood there, her crotch barely a foot away from his wide open eyes. After several sentences that Naruto didn't seem to hear, Miranda decided that it was probably safe to proceed with her plan.

"Are you gonna keep staring or would you like to touch it?"

Naruto looked up at her, seeming confused. She didn't wait for an answer, gently taking hold of his right wrist and placing his hand open palm directly on her crotch. Naruto's body began to shake as he watched his fingers sink into her mound of pubic hair. "_Time to put all the cards on the table_."

Miranda reached down and picked up Naruto, placing him on his back in the center of the bed. He was hyperventilating to the point that he was having trouble getting enough air in. Miranda climbed onto the bed and aligned her opening over his shaft. She looked him in the eyes.

"Can I?"

He nodded his head, causing Miranda to drop her opening onto his shaft. The pleasure was incredible as he slid into her warm and exceedingly tight cavern. He was still nervous but it was beginning to dissipate as Miranda bounced up and down on him, his shaft almost leaving her each time before she dropped back down on him. Her insides were deliciously warm and juicy. The sight of Miranda's body was intoxicating - her ample breasts bouncing up and down as she rode, the perfectly trimmed triangle of hair surrounding her opening, even the quick gaspy breaths she took began to arouse him. His frantic breathing began to slow as pleasure built up in his shaft. Miranda leaned forward, her breasts hanging over Naruto's face. Without thinking, he reached up and began to fondle them, his heart rate slowing to a more normal speed as he did.

Miranda grabbed Naruto's arms as she flipped onto her stomach. She pulled his arms up to her breasts and pinned them there as she rose up onto her hands and knees. His torso rested on her back while his pelvis rested on her massive butt. Miranda looked back at Naruto, "You have my permission."

The feeling of his pelvis resting on top of her large soft butt cheeks was amazing, he didn't understand why this was happening but he no longer cared. Naruto wrapped his legs around hers for support then lined his shaft up with the entrance to her anus. He slowly pushed himself inside. The soft warm muscles began to loosen as he slid deeper in. He began to slowly pump in and out, going in a little deeper each time. "My god… this is amazing…" He slid the entire length of his shaft into the hot tight orifice. Her enormous ass gobbled up the small shaft, his entire length was inside but he felt like it was barely probing the entrance of the fleshy abyss.

"Mmmm…. move it around."

Miranda let out a moan as Naruto pushed all the way inside _"Who says you can't mix work and pleasure."_ Any nervousness or anxiety was completely gone, Naruto was smiling as he slid the length of his shaft in and out. Wet noises like suction being broken began to emit as he pumped. The soft walls griped him tightly each time he fully slid in. Naruto wrapped his arms around her hips, using them for leverage to drive deeper in. He looked over Miranda's body as his shaft pumped in and out. He first gazed at the thick auburn hair resting on her back, his eyes then traveled down her spine as he wondered in amazement at her snow white skin with an almost unnaturally perfect complexion. Her breasts felt warm and soft under his hands as they traveled down her chest and stomach feeling the perfectly smooth skin. Her torso was slender in comparison to her wide hips and luxuriously soft and spacious butt. _"Wow… she is literally perfect, I didn't think women like this existed."_

As he gripped the edges of her hips, her pelvis could be felt below his fingers. He slid his fingers along the edges of her pelvis, noticing that it was at least twice as wide as his own. Naruto's fingers traveled towards the entrance to Miranda's slit, pausing as he felt the contours of her soft, plump cameltoe. He spread her cameltoe apart, sliding three fingers into the hot, moist cavern. His fingers spread out, seeking out folds and ridges inside the warm cave and caressing them as he found them. He could hear Miranda's breathing become heavier, he repositioned his legs around hers so he could get more leverage as he pushed in. Miranda began thrusting back in the opposite direction each time he entered, his pelvis grinding against her large ivory butt. Naruto pushed back into the soft cavern over and over again, he tried to hold it back but he eventually released a small amount of his seed into her.

Naruto stopped pumping for a moment and listened to Miranda's heavy breathing. His hips and legs felt sticky as his own sweat combined with her's and dried. He and Miranda both shifted in an attempt to readjust themselves but the weight became unbalanced and they toppled over. Naruto was still inside Miranda who was now on her side with Naruto's arms wrapped around her stomach. Naruto resumed pumping in and out but was interrupted when Miranda flipped over and wrapped her arms around his back. Naruto was now lying on top of Miranda, their stomachs heaving against each other as they breathed.

Naruto wrapped his arms around the small of Miranda's back as he began to push in and out of her womanhood. As he pumped he placed one of her large and rather perfect looking breasts in his mouth. Miranda moaned a bit as Naruto sucked on the stiff pink nipple and continued to thrust. She felt his hands slide down her and grab hold of her butt. He squeezed and sank his fingers into them causing the warm flesh to push between his fingers. As he began pumping harder and faster, Miranda thrusted back in the opposite direction, causing Naruto to penetrate deeper. Naruto's face contorted as he pushed in as far as he could and came inside her, his seed shooting out in long spurts. The two of them laid still for a while. As Naruto's body rested on Miranda the only noise that could be heard was their heavy breathing. There was a pleasant burning in Miranda's loins as the warmth from Naruto's seed lingered inside her. The two fell asleep.

Miranda dreamt. It was a strange dream, mainly because it mirrored what was happening in reality. Naruto was lying on top of her, looking content as he breathed against her. As time passed, the bright red Cerebus symbol slowing appeared on his back, its nasty red color ruining an otherwise perfect scene.

-Root compound

Danzo sat in silence, tapping his fingers on the thick oak table. Knock, knock "Come in." The door opened and a woman entered. She had a pistol attached to her waist and a biotic amp on her left hand. Danzo wasn't one to stare but her electric blue face and body made it hard not to. She clearly wasn't human and judging from her entirely otherworldly clothing she might not be from this planet at all. Danzo opened his mouth but the woman spoke first,

"Did you find the target?"

"Yes, she is a woman about your height with brown hair, paper white skin and a… very feminine body. I believe she is currently living with someone named Uzumaki Naruto, I can give you his address."

"And did you inject the compound?"

"Yes. She noticed the pain but she thought I had accidently harmed her. She doesn't suspect anything"

"Good, and we will hold up our end of the bargain." The asari walked out of the room without saying another word.

-Naruto's apartment

Miranda woke up and looked at the yellow haired boy sleeping on top of her. Her nipple poked up through his fingers as his hand lay still on her breast. He was drooling on her chest and looked generally unkempt. And yet, for some unknown reason, she felt a strange attraction to him. In many ways they were similar, she was genetically engineered perfection and he was the one person capable of containing the nine-tails. Furthermore, he seemed just as proud, arrogant and impulsive as she was.

After starring at the ceiling for several minutes she slid out from under him and walked across the cold floor, looking around his room. The pleasant burn in her loins was still there, its presence forced her to admit that she had thoroughly enjoyed herself. Who was she kidding, that was the most fun she had had in years. She was almost sad that the mission was over, being a biotic, she could easily control whether she got pregnant or not.

"I need a shower." She picked up her clothes and stepped into Naruto's bathroom. She sighed as the cool water washed over her. When Naruto woke up she would have to explain herself. He definitely enjoyed it, but would probably want an explanation. What would she tell him? "_Uhh… I was really horny and you were the closest male. _" Miranda looked down at her body, watching the water cascade off her large breasts. _"Genetically engineered perfection, I wonder if manipulating males was my father's intended use for me?"_

She could hear someone approaching the bathroom door. Knock, Knock. "_O shit, I better think fast here he is now_."

"Hello, Miranda… is that you? It's me Sakura. I just came by to check up on you."

"Oh, hi Sakura, yeah I'm fine." She paused, "When should I come in for more tests?"

"We're going to wait a week, give you time to heal before we try to find out where you are from again. Technically we can't release you until we know you aren't a spy or something, although nobody thinks you are. Oh by the way…"

She stopped mid sentence. "Naruto! Why don't you have any clothes on!? You have a guest in the house, please try to behave like a civilized member of society." There was a loud punching noise followed by the sound of a slamming door.

Miranda finished her shower, dressed herself and stepped back into Naruto's room. Naruto was sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked up at her and although he hadn't asked yet, it was clear that he wanted to know why she had come onto him. Miranda sat down next to him,

"I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did." "_Shit. That was a really stupid and classless thing to say_."

Naruto spoke, "After years of people being mean to me for no reason, it's nice for someone to do the exact opposite. But… I can't help feeling that I didn't earn that, like it was somehow forced." He paused, trying to reword his thoughts, "That didn't seem like something our relationship built up to, it felt like it happened for different reasons. I don't know, maybe you're just impulsive and express it differently than most people."

Miranda was generally heartless but she was clearly going to have a hard time detaching her emotions from this scenario. Naruto spoke again.

"I obviously enjoyed it, but I wish you had asked first before throwing yourself at me. I would rather take it a bit slower but you will probably be gone by then." He paused again, "I definitely care about you though and I think you care about me too." Naruto was silent.

Miranda was trying to think of words but she was at a loss. "_He is a lot more perceptive than I initially thought_." Naruto spoke again. "A lot of people have been mean to me. In fact, up until recently I didn't have a single friend. I'm a very good judge of character and I can tell that deep down you're a good person, so I definitely want to be your friend."

Miranda was silent. She thought of many different combinations of words to say, some were reassuring, some were obvious lies and others exposed more of her true feelings than she was comfortable with. Eventually, she settled with "I want to be your friend too." It was simple enough and carrying it out wouldn't interfere with her mission.

Naruto looked up at her and smiled.

Miranda spoke again "So now that that's out of the way, do you want to go to the ramen bar again?"

"No I have a better idea. Let's go get ice cream."

"I'd love to."

-Root compound

Danzo sat at his desk, staring out across the dimly lit room. His body was perfectly still, as if in a trance, but his mind was racing as he analyzed the situation. He didn't like his current position, he was in danger and there were too many variables out of his control. "_The group known as "Cerebus" wants to create a monopoly on our form of "biotics" what we know as chakra. Seems believable, simple motivation but the correct course of action from their perspective. And the group that contacted me, the "Blue Novas," they want to prevent Cerebus from gaining control of our chakra but at the same time they want to colonize this planet and absorb our genome into the various members of the Blue Novas, creating a superior form of Asari. If they are telling the truth about how the Asari mate then that plan is also believable. They contacted me because I have contacts in the shadows that can help them. The fact that they know that means they have already infiltrated Konoha to some extent. They also spotted me before I spotted them, which means they are exceeding cautious and highly competent at what they do. But here is where I run into trouble. They need me to provide them with information, and in exchange they will make me a powerful figure within their organization. The part about needing information is believable, but the rest isn't. After they are done with me they will either cast me aside or kill me, probably the latter. I have no leverage over them, no means of ensuring that they carry out their end of the bargain_." Danzo closed his eyes and continued thinking. He already had a plan in motion but you certainly wouldn't know it from the serene look on his face.

- Inoichi's house

Ino sat across from her father, preparing to voice her concerns for the fourth time in hopes that he would finally listen.

"Do you really plan on just waiting a week then running more tests? You said you may have seen the strange images because she recently suffered head trauma, but I don't think you actually believe that. I think at the very least you should alert the hokage and get his opinion on this matter.

"I don't entirely believe it myself, but I don't really have a better hypothesis. The fact of the matter is, she doesn't appear to be a ninja and she is probably harmless. The hokage is busy and doesn't have time to deal with insignificant matters like this. We will test her again in a week and if nothing changes we will probably just release her."

"Release her! But we have absolutely no idea who she is, she could very easily be a spy."

"We have no reason to believe that she is a spy. Multiple sources have told me that she has barely left Naruto's side since arriving. My instinct is that she is harmless and holding her here is just a waste of time."

"Well if you insist on releasing her you should at least have her followed, see if she heads for an enemy nation and proceeds to divulge whatever information she has obtained."

"That may be wise but we will deal with that idea when the time comes."

Ino and her father continued to argue but neither changed their mind on the issue.

- Blue Nova compound

An asari commando stepped into the room. "Biara, we have established contact with Danzo and have been monitoring the Cerebus agent as you ordered."

Biara cast a nervous glance at the elder who was still muttering to herself, not taking notice of the young commando's presence. Biara began to speak but the elder interrupted her.

"We haven't said the chant, so the meeting hasn't begun."

All the Asari in the room instantly formed a perfect circle around the elder. They used their arms to form a ring and their biotic powers to make the ring glow blue. They spoke in unison.

"Since time immemorial, the Blue Novas have carried out the will of our deceased matron Alexeris. Though she no longer graces the universe with her presence, her dream is eternal. Like the nova from an exploded star, we carry her light forever, enforcing the will of Alexeris upon the universe. Alexeris demanded the creation of a higher form of Asari but the cowardly matrons disagreed. They killed her and thought they extinguished her ideas. But they were foolish. Everyone has two lives. You lose your first life when you die and you lose your second life when you are forgotten. The Blue Novas will never forget her ideas and so we grant her immortality. On this planet we will realize her dream and make a higher form of Asari."

The elder began muttering to herself. Biara spoke.

"Determine the exact nature of the Cerebus agent's plan, we can't move against them until we know what they are doing." The asari sitting next to Biara spoke up.

"We already know that they are trying to establish a monopoly on this planet's form of chakra. Isn't that enough information? We should clearly move against them immediately."

"No, that isn't enough information. We don't know how they are going to establish a monopoly and we need to know that before we move. They aren't going to go away after one attempt. They will return and may try the same strategy again. Either way, we need to know exactly what they are doing." Biara looked over her fellow Blue Novas, seeing if anyone was going to argue with her. "Moving onto other subjects, we need to find a way to force Danzo to bend to our will. He is devious and cunning, he won't blindly follow our orders. Find out if there is anything we can use against him or any other means of controlling him."

Another Asari spoke up, "Do we know if Danzo injected the compound into Miranda?" The commando spoke again, "Yes he told me that he did when I met with him, I don't think he was lying."

The room fell silent. "Meeting dismissed."

-Woods outside Konoha

Zeke raced through the woods, chased by an unidentified woman. His mission had been assigned directly by Danzo, success would possibly lead to promotion within Root and he didn't want to think about what failure would lead to. He had already accomplished the first part of his mission, stealing a small yellow book that Danzo told him would be near the suspected Blue Nova hideout. Zeke didn't know anything about the Blue Novas or how Danzo had located their hideout, but that didn't matter, he only needed to know how to accomplish his mission. Unfortunately, he was having a bit of trouble with that part. While the first part of the mission had been easy, the second part of the mission which was to "Make sure you aren't being followed and head to the predetermined meeting spot" was proving difficult. Whoever was following him had endless stamina and possessed tracking skills that equaled or surpassed Zeke's formidable running away skills. Several minutes passed and the pursuer was now only meters behind Zeke, "_Well… time for cloning jutsu I guess_." "Bunshin!" The 7 clones and Zeke scattered, heading in different directions.

Iria had been running for hours, she had finally caught her target but it had taken her all morning. She didn't want to use any biotic powers as that would give away the presence of the Blue Novas. Her target had clearly stolen something from the Blue Nova compound but she had no idea what. "_Biara will kill me if this turns out to be something important and he gets away. Then again, she will also kill me if I give away the presence of the Blue Novas_." Just then her target split into 8. "_What the fuck!_" Her mind raced, "_Shit, he forced my hand_." Iria's hands glowed blue and the 8 targets lifted into the air and then slammed down into the ground, causing 7 to disappear. She raced over to the dazed man and pinned him to the ground, holding a knife to his throat. "Do you want to die right now or will you tell me who you are and what you stole?"

"I'm Zeke. I steal fancy arts, important charts and women's hearts."

Zeke winced as a dagger slid across his chest, easily slicing through his shirt. It wasn't deep enough to do any damage, but it was enough to draw blood and cause a sharp pain.

"Would you like it several inches deeper next time?"

"I didn't steal anything."

"I'll have to search you to confirm that. Truth be told, you'll be better off if I do find it, if I don't this whole process will become a lot more painful for you."

"Strip searches are my favorite activity, giving or receiving."

Zeke grimaced as he was dealt a slightly deeper wound. As he rolled over and clutched his chest the little yellow book fell out of his pocket. Iria quickly snatched it up and began frantically flipping through the pages, trying to figure out what it was.

Iria skimmed through the entire book then looked at Zeke, a blank expression on her face. "_Why is she looking at me like that?_"

"_Is this the item he stole? No… probably not, it's just a blank book_."

"I'll ask once more, where is the item that you stole?"

"_Does she not know what I stole?_" "I told you, I didn't steal anything."

The dagger was now pressed tight against his throat, "Who sent you?" She paused. "How did you get into our compound without being detected?"

"Unless the sidewalk is your "compound" I didn't infiltrate anything, I was walking down the street and picked up my journal that I had dropped yesterday, no one sent me to do anything."

"_What the fuck is he talking about? Is it possible that he didn't steal anything?_" A dreadful thought passed through her mind, "_Maybe this was just a test to see if anyone chased him, that would confirm the location of our hideout if someone thought they knew the location. I better take him back to the compound_."

Zeke saw Iria's hand turn green right before the world went black.

-Downtown Konoha

Sakura raced down the hall and burst out the door, she tried to walk briskly away from the hospital but it turned into more of a sprint. 24 hour shifts pushed her to the brink of insanity. It was like a stressful day at school times 1000. "_I really don't know why I do this to myself. I always promise that I will slack off a little bit or show up late one day but I never do. Sometimes I wish I could be a tiny bit more like Naruto. Speaking of Naruto being lazy, is that him standing in line for ice cream_? Sakura began walking towards Naruto, preparing to yell at him for neglecting to watch over Miranda. "_O, Miranda is with him, I guess I don't have to yell at him_." Sakura walked towards her apartment, the bright sun straining her tired eyes.

-Unknown

Zeke opened his eyes but didn't see anything. "_Where am I...? Why is it pitch black?_" Zeke's mind raced, desperately trying to shed light on his situation. An image popped into his mind. "_That's right, that blue woman captured me. Who was she? And more importantly, what the fuck was she? She clearly wasn't human."_ Zeke paused, attempting to calm himself before continuing to think. "_That yellow book was blank… did I pickup the wrong thing? No… I don't think so, Danzo said to pickup a small yellow book, it was the exact dimensions that he said it would be. But why would he send me to steal a blank book, that doesn't make any sense. Well, I can ponder all this after escaping_." Zeke tried to get up but his entire body was restrained. Something was wrong though, he didn't feel any resistance when he tried to move, his limbs simply weren't listening. "_Am I paralyzed? No, I can feel my body, it aches all over, so I can't be paralyzed_."

A bright blue light shown down on him, interrupting his thoughts. Zeke squinted, expecting the light to bother his eyes but for some reason it didn't.

"Hello. Is someone there?"

"We are here. You are inside our compound, escape is impossible so don't try." Zeke couldn't see who was talking to him but it sounded like his captor.

"The item you stole from us has been recovered. Cooperate with us and we will let you live. Who sent you?"

"_They have what I stole? Even I don't know what I stole. They already have the yellow book, although I'm fairly sure that's useless_."

"Answer us quickly."

"_I don't think they have anything, I think they're bluffing_."

"No one sent me, I already told you that. I just picked up my journal."

There was silence.

"_They're thinking, They seem unsure of themselves, they definitely don't have anything_."

"Why do you lie when we already have what you stole? You also ran when you were chased which discredits your story anyways."

"_I did run, they got me there_."

"You don't have anything because I didn't steal anything. I ran because I was chased, not the other way around, that's how most people react when they are chased."

Zeke focused, he didn't sense any chakra but there was something else, something similar to chakra but completely different. Chakra was contained within the body and there was a finite amount of it, the amount was hard to judge and varied greatly from individual to individual, but there was always a finite amount. This new kind of energy, it seemed like it was created purely by the will of the user, it was appearing and disappearing like it was coming out of nowhere. "_I only sense one person, or thing, whatever this is_. _Also, I'm fairly certain that we're in a cave or something, not in a building, too cool and humid to be a building._" Zeke's thoughts were interrupted by a series of strange sounding beeps. Suddenly, the "energy" went away completely and the blue light dimmed then vanished.

The blue woman who had captured him was standing over him, looking him square in the eyes. "I don't know what you stole, I actually don't think you stole anything. However, I do think you were sent by someone to lure us out. You will be staying with me until I have extracted the necessary information from you. However, that isn't important at this moment. We have to leave immediately."

"So, I gather there is only one of you and we aren't in your compound. You're a bad liar."

"_I guess he isn't quite as dumb as he looks, not that it matters anymore, might as well stop lying._"

"I don't entirely understand what is going on and I don't feel like explaining the details to you. Long story short, my clan thinks I have betrayed them. I need to get far away from here and you will help me. In exchange, I will release you when we are far enough away."

"_Is this another tactic to get information out of me? No… I don't think so, I think she is telling the truth this time. However, I am no longer in immediate danger and now have some amount of power over her_."

"Remove my restraints and then I will consider helping you."

"You never had any restraints, I did that with my mind."

Zeke stood up slowly, "_I guess that's what that glowing energy was used for_."

"So, I feel like I should ask you for your name, now that we're travel buddies and all."

Iria glared at him, "That isn't important."

"My name is Zeke. Now it's your turn." He looked at her expectantly.

"I'm Zenora, now let's leave immediately." She began walking out of the cave but turned back and gave Zeke a threatening look, urging him to move.

"You don't look like a Zenora. Nope, you're definitely lying. I'm not going to move until you tell me your name."

"_Fuck it, it doesn't matter if he knows my name_."

"I'm Iria. Now let's get moving."

"Nice to meet you Iria."

The two walked out of the cave, one glaring at the other and the other acting like he didn't have a care in the world.

"_Keep it up Zeke, continue to make her think you're harmless then make your move_."

"So… where the fuck are we? You moved me here when I was unconscious."

Iria took out a small white orb about the size of an egg and pressed on the top of it. A blue holographic map of the surroundings shot out, their location marked by a red dot. Zeke jumped backwards,

"Holy shit, what the fuck is that?"

Iria sighed, "This is a map of our surroundings, based on this, where do we need to go to get far away from Konoha?"

Zeke moved behind her, looked over her shoulder and examined the map. He didn't understand the strange symbols but he could still make out the landscape pretty easily.

"We're northeast of Konoha, but still fairly close. How far do we need to go? I mean, if your ex-comrades are as clueless about the surroundings as you, I wouldn't think we wouldn't need to go far to escape their reach."

"Don't underestimate the Blue Novas. They have dozens of commandos and will be hell bent on tracking me down, hiding from them will be difficult. Worse yet, I stick out like a sore thumb here."

"Yeah… about that." Zeke paused, "I can't think of a better way to word this so I'm just going to say it. What the hell are you? In a normal interaction I would have asked "Why the fuck are you blue?" about half a second after meeting you. But I've been either running from you or pinned to the ground by you for the past several hours so it somehow didn't come up."

Iria looked mildly amused, a stark change from the "I want to kill you" expression that had been making Zeke uneasy for the past several hours. "I'm an asari, and as you probably figured out, I'm not from around here, not even close. I belong to a group known as the Blue Novas we are originally from…."

Zeek's attention wandered. Well, it didn't wander so much as it was captured by the sight of Iria's large and rather exposed blue breasts. "_Wow, I must be really stressed out. I went several hours in the presence of a woman without checking her out. Now that I look at her, she is pretty damn hot. Great curves, perfect skin, vibrant and energetic looking face. Everything is amazing, well… except for her not being human and all_."

"….And after Alexerus was killed the Blue Novas vowed to…." Zeke's attention was still focused elsewhere. "_Her skimpy commando gear really doesn't offer much protection. I mean… I'm not complaining but most combat outfits don't show off quite so much cleavage. I wonder if they feel like human breasts_." Zeke reached out and slipped his left hand under Iria's suit, palming her right breast and giving it a nice squeeze. "_Almost human, but not quite, the skin is too smooth and plasticy_."

Zeke was slammed into the ground. The "I want to kill you" look was back and scarier than ever. "At least they react like human women, except way more violently."

"I would probably kill or seriously wound you for that but I need you so I'll have to settle for only hurting you a little." She paused seeming lost in thought, "anyways, as I was saying, our unique form of mating explains why my race has no men, only females."

"Wait a second, what was that last part."

"Asari are entirely female. No men at all, all asari babies are female."

"_Well that's different. I can't decide if that's a miracle or a tragedy_."

"Enough talking, we need to start moving now."

Zeke looked at the blue map one final time before guiding them both north east towards the lightning country.

-Konoha

Naruto and Miranda lazily walked through the streets of Konoha, taking in the sights as dusk overtook the city. They weren't going anywhere in particular, just endlessly walking through the city. Several hours into their walk Naruto was debating whether or not he should hold Miranda's hand. Naruto had just about built up enough courage when he noticed Sakura sleeping on a bench. Normally, he would have tied her shoes together or something, but he really wasn't in the mood. He gently shook her awake.

"Sakura you should go home, you look like a homeless person."

She blinked a few times then sat up and yawned. "Wow, you're actually doing your job and staying with Miranda, maybe you aren't useless."

The three parted ways as Naruto and Miranda headed towards Naruto's apartment.

-Root compound

Danzo sat in darkness. He hated times like this, the dreadful period between ordering a mission and finding out the results. Worse yet, he didn't know the results of two critical missions. One mission to confirm the suspected location of the Blue Nova compound and another to cause internal conflict within the Blue Novas. Zeke could probably be trusted. Danzo personally hated his guts and hated the careless manner in which he carried out missions, but despite that, Zeke always got the job done. Unfortunately, Lyra was relatively untested. He wouldn't have used her but her unique talents made her the only viable choice for the mission. He closed his eyes, possibly sleeping but probably not.


	5. Day 5

Day 5:

-Blue Nova compound

Matron Biara opened her eyes. She had been asleep for the past 7 hours, by far the longest she had slept since arriving on this planet. Normally, she would consider sleeping that long to be gross negligence. But today was different, she was confronted with a problem that she hadn't been able to solve while awake. She had hoped to find the answer in her dreams but that had failed. "_I was foolish to think that would work_." She sighed, "_Should I seek the matriarch's help? No… that would make me appear weak, I must deal with this myself. But how…? _"

The silence continued unbroken for over an hour. "_Danzo clearly doesn't trust us, not that I expected him to. He is devious and cunning, but not to the extent that he thinks he is. His attempt to spread paranoia and mistrust within the Blue Novas was amateur at best. That female ninja he sent didn't seem overly clever. Taking the form of Iria, spying on us and relaying the information back to Danzo. It was obvious she wasn't the real Iria right from the start. We fed her fake information… but didn't Danzo have to know that would happen? I guess we let him keep believing for the moment. Commandos have been dispatched and the real Iria now thinks we're after her. But what should I do next? Wait for Danzo to move again? That seems unwise but I can't think of a better plan_."

Biara left her bedchamber and headed towards the central chamber, she didn't have any plan of action and had absolutely no idea what she was going to order the commandos to do today. "_They should probably just rest until I have a clear plan, but the matriarch hates inactivity. She has been unreasonable and extremely impatient ever since we arrived here. If she deems me unfit to carry out our sacred mission I will be replaced in an instant_."

The matriarch and many of the commandos were already in the central chamber. Biara joined them and followed along with the chant of Alexeris. Normally they only said it once, but today the matriarch had them go through it 5 times. "_She is really fixated on our mission today, even more than usual. I defiantly have to appear like I have a plan_." The elder returned to her muttering. Biara stood and spoke to the gathered asari. "You two commandos come with me, we have an important mission that requires a small group so that we aren't detected. I'll explain the mission on the way to our target. Move out."

Biara and the two commandos left the compound. "_Well… that at least sounded purposeful. And now I have a few more hours to think of an actual plan_." Biara was deep in though as she led the two commandos on a wild goose chase to find a "target" that didn't exist.

-Naruto's apartment.

Naruto opened his eyes and groggily looked around the room. He rubbed his eyes and gasped as Miranda came into focus. He shouldn't have been surprised, but he was. He half expected her to vanish during the night or for him to wake up and find out the whole thing was a dream. But she was still there… sound asleep, wearing one of his frog tee-shirts and nothing else. Naruto crawled under the covers and looked her over, "_God is she hot_." His perverted side was starting to take over. Still under the covers he climbed between her legs, spread them out and looked her over. It didn't take long for him to go to work. His tongue was inside, sliding over the warm folds, pushing as deep as it would go and swirling around.

Miranda's eyes were open but she was perfectly still. It had only taken her a second to figure out what was going on, but several seconds to determine her response. "_Should I snap his neck or let him continue_?" She smiled, "_I guess it's not the worst way to wake up, certainly better than an alarm clock_."

Knock! Knock! "Naruto, Miranda… are you in there?!"

Naruto and Miranda both froze. Miranda broke the silence, "Uhh… yes."

Sakura burst in, a look of awe spread over her face as she looked around. "This is the cleanest his room has ever been. It's actually kind of amazing." Her eyes wandered over to Miranda, looking at the rather large lump below the sheets, "_I guess I'm not the only one who sleeps with a large pillow between my legs_." Making eye contact with Miranda, "You should win some sort of medal for cleaning this room." She suddenly remembered why she was there in the first place. "Is Naruto here?"

"Just me, Naruto left earlier this morning, I'm not really sure where he went."

"Figures… well, if you see him, tell him to come see me at the hospital, I need to speak with him right away."

"I'll tell him the next time I see him."

"Okay thanks." She smiled and left. Naruto tried to move but his head was held in place. A wicked smile spread over Miranda's face, "I don't remember telling you to stop."

-Several miles outside Konoha

Biara raced through the woods outside Konoha. She was used to multi-tasking but this was a bit much even for her. Guiding an asari commando unit through the woods, trying to avoid detection and continually feeding her followers information about a target that didn't exist all while trying to determine her next course of action. As the hours passed by a plan was slowly forming in her mind. "_I need more information on Danzo, but I'm clearly not going to get it by spying, he is too clever for that. Fortunately, I have other means of obtaining information. I definitely can't meld with Danzo, he would never fall for it. But that female ninja he sent, she seemed much less cunning and probably far more impulsive too. She would probably mate with me and allow me into her mind if she thought it would allow her to spy on me. Yes… that's what I'll do. But how?_"

Biara feigned anger and annoyance. "The target is gone. We failed." She signaled for the unit to stop.

"As you have probably noticed, the matron has been unusually impatient lately, even by her standards. It is in our best interest not to tell her about the result of this mission." One of the asari spoke up, "But we don't even know what we were looking for." She continued speaking but Biara interrupted, "I know what we were looking for and we didn't find it, it's a top secret mission so I wasn't planning on telling you unless we found it. Now let's head back to base." The unit silently returned to base.

-Naruto's apartment

Miranda's breathing became short and gaspy, her toes were moving uncontrollably as the pleasure built. She buried Naruto's face into her warm mound and began thrusting into him, feeling the end approaching. She closed her eyes, her rapid breathing slowing down as she released. Naruto threw the sheets off himself. He was smiling uncontrollably, his head bobbing back and forth as he tried to regain his breath. "I noticed the alarm clock was broken so I thought I would do it myself."

Miranda flashed him an evil smile, "It's dangerous to do things like that, I just might come to expect it." Miranda slid off the bed and slipped into the bathroom. "O by the way, Sakura wants you to go see her at the hospital, apparently it's urgent."

"Yeah I heard, I was there remember." Miranda closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower. She slipped off her clothes and stepped into the water, remembering not to enter before it warmed up. She put her hands together and crossed all of her fingers except for her thumbs and pointer fingers which she placed on her face. If Naruto had been looking he would have seen green light creeping out from under the bathroom door. "_Strange… I should be pregnant by now, why can't I detect it_?" A nervous look spread over her face "_I guess I'll try again later_."

-Blue Nova compound

Biara silently crept into her room and shut the door, hoping to avoid the matriarch. Not fifteen seconds had passed when someone knocked on the door. "_Please don't be who I think you are_." A commando threw open the door, practically falling into the room, her heavy breathing indicated that she had been running.

"Biara, I have located the ninja you spoke of. We don't know much but she doesn't appear to be a citizen of Konoha. In fact, other than Danzo, I'm not sure if anyone in the leaf village knows of her presence. We haven't confirmed her true form but we know that she can change appearance at will. She is currently disguised as a civilian living in Konoha."

"_That was much faster than expected_." "How did you locate her if she can change form?"

"I wish I could take credit for it, but it was entirely luck. I was walking down the main street of Konoha when an old woman caught my eye."

Biara interrupted, "Why on earth were you walking down the main street of Konoha in broad daylight. I assume you were disguised but you should be more careful."

"I was veiled and no one could see my skin. Besides, without spying inside Konoha we will never learn anything." Biara wanted to reprimand her but she knew she was right.

The commando continued, "Despite the woman's extreme age she was walking quite quickly. On a whim, I decided to follow her. I trailed her several miles, then followed her around a corner. When I rounded the corner, the strangest thing happened. I saw a young woman wearing the exact same clothes that the older woman had been wearing. At first I thought it was coincidence but it couldn't have been. Her shirt had the exact same stain on it. I backed off for a bit so I wouldn't draw her attention then continued following. She entered an apartment building and didn't emerge for several hours. She is living in apartment 115 and rarely leaves."

Biara's mind was racing, "_Is Danzo really this careless? He allows his underling to change form in broad daylight when she could be seen. He has been flawless in every other regard, why would he screw up like this_?"

The commando resumed speaking, "We have been tracking her since then. Whenever she leaves the apartment, it seems like she has a purpose, she moves swiftly and returns to her apartment immediately after she is done. Thing is… we aren't really sure what she is doing. She appears to be walking around Konoha, not really achieving anything."

"Does she ever talk to anybody when she leaves the apartment?"

"Yes, she always talks to people, she is very outgoing. In particular, she always talks to a young man with red hair. I think they are friends."

"I doubt they are friends, he is most likely a means of communicating with Danzo."

Biara was silent, the commando stood next to her, completely frozen, unsure if she was supposed to leave. Biara spoke again,

"We're going to contact her."

The commando whipped her head around, "Do you really think that's wise?"

"No, I don't think it's wise. But my instincts tell me that this is our best chance to obtain information on Danzo."

"You don't seem like the impulsive type. Are you sure you aren't doing this because the matriarch is impatient."

"The matriarch's impatience definitely factors in, we need to act quickly or she may do something irrational."

"I think you're about to do something irrational."

Biara glared at her, she would have told her to remember her position but she was entirely right. "_Irrational is probably an understatement for this particular plan. But for whatever reason, I think it will work. This female ninja who serves under Danzo, my gut instinct tells me that he keeps her around because of her unique power. Otherwise, I don't think he would tolerate someone so seemingly incompetent. However, she is more than just incompetent; she is incompetent and extremely ambitious. She assumed Iria's form and tried to spy on us. I can use that ambition against her, present an opportunity to spy on us and she will take it_."

A smile spread across her face. "Biara… are you okay? You've been staring into the distance for a while now."

"Yes I'm fine. You may leave now." The commando silently left. "No wait! Come back, I need you for something." She re-entered the room.

"Establish contact with the female ninja, tell her that we know she works for Danzo and that we will be wiping out their entire organization. However, we will spare her if she gives us information. Bring her back to me and I will take care of the rest."

"I think you're rushing this."

"We're moving quickly not rushing. Move out."

The commando saluted and left.

-Konoha Hospital

Naruto entered the hospital and waived to the receptionist. He had injured himself enough times that everyone in the hospital knew him by name. "_I wonder why Sakura needed to see me. Probably something to do with Miranda_." He entered the sick ward and immediately went over to Sakura.

"Hey there."

It took her a second to notice him, she was clearly stressed out and distracted.

"You okay?"

She turned towards him a vacant look in her eyes, "Hey yourself."

There was silence, "So uh… what did you want to see me about?"

Sakura looked like she was on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry, I've been working non-stop for hours. Let's go for a walk."

Naruto practically had to jog to keep up with Sakura as they "walked" through the streets of Konoha.

"Are you always this stressed out?

"Yeah, the hospital does this to you, but don't worry, I'm fine."

"So… what did you want to talk about?"

Sakura made sure there was no one listening before she spoke. "I need to talk to you about Miranda. The plan was to have her evaluated again in several days but it looks like things might be changing."

"What happened? Didn't you tell me that Miranda was being held as a formality and that she would be released?"

Naruto was clearly getting pretty agitated, "Yes, but that was before." Sakura paused, thinking carefully about her next words.

"Recently we have been detecting increased activity from Root, and the hokage thinks Danzo may be up to something. Furthermore, Miranda was apparently seen talking to Danzo the first day she arrived here. We still think she is harmless, but we aren't 100% sure anymore."

"Lots of people talk to Danzo, that doesn't make them guilty of anything"

Sakura continued, ignoring Naruto's comment. "We need you to bring Miranda to the hospital tomorrow morning, we are going to run a different test on her that should hopefully prove her innocent or guilty once and for all."

"Guilty of what?!"

Sakura was surprised, Naruto was getting pretty emotional over someone she didn't think he cared about.

"Like I said, we don't think she is guilty of anything. However, there is a very small chance that she is involved with Root. That's why we need you to bring her to the hospital tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll go tell her I guess."

"You can't do that."

Naruto glared at her, "Why can't I tell her?! You said that she is probably innocent."

"_I guess he made friends with her pretty quickly. Even so, I'm surprised he seems this defensive_." "Yes, she probably is, but we aren't sure. If she knows in advance that we are going to run more tests she may run away, so we can't let her know ahead of time. Tomorrow morning, bring her to the hospital, tell her you are just visiting me or something. Once she is inside she won't be able to escape."

"Won't be able to escape… so you do think she is guilty! I have been by her side since she arrived and she definitely hasn't been in contact with Danzo."

"Well then let's prove that and we can put this behind us forever." Sakura was about to say something else but Naruto had already stormed out of the room.

"_Wow, I certainly didn't expect him to respond like that. I guess he and Miranda are pretty close. Should I trust him to bring her here_?" Sakura thought about it for several minutes. "_I trust him, I'm not 100% sure why, but I do_."

-Download Konoha

Lyra stared into the mirror, watching her wrinkles and old tired eyes give way to perfect skin and a youthful vibrance. She had possessed this power for as long as she could remember but she never tired of watching her hair shift from grey, green, red or any other color back to its natural blonde. On a different day she could have spent hours in front of the mirror, marveling at her effortlessly changing body. But not today, today was different, today was the most important day of her life.

Truth be told, she didn't care about her objectives, not on a personal level at least. However, she did care about impressing Danzo. In her 23 years of life Lyra had taken on the forms of countless people. But she didn't only take on their forms, she took on their morals, beliefs, biases and grudges, their passions, ideas, fears and everything else that made them who they were. Sometime during that 23 year span, she realized that all morals, beliefs and ideas were essentially hollow, they existed solely to justify people's actions. People will change their morals on a dime if they need to in order to justify their actions.

But Danzo was different, he was completely devoid of morals, biases, beliefs and everything else that clouded the vision of the rest of the world. He operated solely based on logic. He knew what was right, not because some pretentious moral code said it was right, but because it truly was right. For Lyra, who had spent her whole life drowning in a sea of self serving morals, Danzo stood out like a beacon of hope. She would do anything to further his cause. On this particular day, Lyra needed to infiltrate the Blue Novas and begin feeding information back to Danzo.

Knock, knock. "Are you in there? I need to see you immediately."

Lyra's heart skipped a beat. "_Who the fuck is this_?"

"You have the wrong apartment."

Bang! The door came crashing down and veiled woman burst into the room, Lyra couldn't see her face but she didn't need to. "_She doesn't seem like a civilian. Definitely a ninja_." Lyra charged the mysterious intruder, preparing the slash her throat. Her face hit the ground as she was pinned to the floor, limbs completely frozen. "_Shit! I didn't even see her make a hand seal. What kind of jutsu is this_!?" Lyra went unconscious.

Lyra opened her eyes and looked around her apartment. "_Shit I'm still paralyzed_." Her mind was racing, "_I don't think I can call for help. Have to deal with this myself_."

"Who are you?... What do you want?"

There was only silence.

"I'm not alone. Help will come so you had better speak up."

The silence continued for the next hour.

A unfamiliar voice spoke, "Are you calmed down yet?"

"Who are you?"

"We could draw this out but that wouldn't be beneficial for either of us."

Lyra began struggling again, using dispel jutsu and physical force to try and break free. "Free me and we can negotiate. This will end badly for you if you don't free me."

"I intend to negotiate, that's what I came here to do." The veiled woman stepped into the center of the room and removed her mask.

"I figured it was one of you."

"_How the hell did they find me?! I haven't revealed myself to anyone_."

"Well you must be pretty clever then, if you're telling the truth that is."

"_Well, no sense lying to them more, they clearly know that I infiltrated their compound_."

"So let me guess, you're here to question me, find out who I am and who I work for."

The asari spoke, "You work for Danzo and we don't really care who you are."

"_I guess I underestimated them, this is going to be tough to get out of_."

"We could drag this out but it would be better to skip to the end. We know the location of the Root hideout and we are planning to exterminate your organization. However, this would be easier to carry out if we had a bit more information on Danzo and Root. Come back to our base, give us information and we will agree to spare you."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"Well the alternative is me killing you right now."

"_Shit, I can't break free of this paralysis jutsu or whatever she used on me. Damn it… think Lyra_."

"You can't break free. Like I said, you have two choices, give us information and live, or die right now."

"_Fuck, I don't think I can get out of this_._ At least I have a chance of escape if I prolong my life by going with her._"

"Fine, take me to your base, but don't…"

Lyra went unconscious.

-Naruto's apartment

Miranda sat up, quizzically looking over Naruto as he stormed into the room. "You okay?"

"I'm great."

"You sure, you look pretty pissed off."

"I am…. but I'll get over it."

"Anything I can do?"

A several seconds of silence, "No… not really, I'll be fine."

Naruto walked into bathroom, looking more depressed than pissed off.

"_Should try to cheer him up_." Miranda repeated the words in her head, "_Try to cheer him up? Wow, listen to me, I must actually care about him or something_."

"So uhh… you wana do anything tonight?"

Naruto's muffled voice sounded through the wall. "I didn't have any plans, why?"

"I was thinking we could go out to eat or something. No offense, but I think I'll throw up if I have to eat ramen one more time."

Naruto laughed, "Yeah sure. Know of a place you wana go?"

"No, I was hoping you knew of someplace decent."

"Ichiraku Ramen is pretty much the only place I go."

"I was afraid of that. O well, I guess we'll just have to pick someplace."

Miranda rolled over and dozed off, half worried about her mission, half strangely content.

-Blue Nova compound

Lyra awoke, her head was ringing as she tried to orient herself in the darkness. She could move again, but her limbs felt heavy. "_Alright, time to escape_."

A blue light illuminated the room.

"_A bedroom, why am I in a bedroom?_" Lyra stood up, "_It looks like any other bedroom in Konoha, but something is off about it. I can't say what it is, but I don't think this is a human's bedroom_."

A veiled woman stepped into the room and promptly shut the door behind her. She had a commanding presence, without seeing her face Lyra could tell that this was probably their leader.

The woman removed her veil and spoke, "My name is Biara, I'm the one who sent for you." She could see Lyra's eyes darting around the room, looking for the best way to escape.

"Don't bother, you can't escape from here. You are in the heart of our compound and there are dozens of asari commandos between you and the closest exit. I am allowing you freedom of movement but that will be taken away if you don't cooperate."

"First off, how did you find me?"

"We know the location of all root operatives, you are no exception."

"_Act superior and maybe she will actually believe that_." Biara's expression didn't betray her lack of information on Root.

Lyra began to speak but was interrupted. "We could sit here and waste time or we could proceed with the plan. Like I said, my name is Biara, I am second in command here. We are planning to exterminate Root, but it will be easier if you give us information. In exchange, we will let you live."

"I doubt you will let me live, I would rather die without betraying Root."

"Yes… I figured you would say that. It is the logical thing to think after all. Honestly, there is nothing I could say that will convince you that we won't kill you. But we can make a trade."

"What sort of a trade?" Lyra was still frantically thinking of ways to escape. "_If I kill her I could try to make a run for it, but I don't think she is lying about the dozens of commandos. I don't think I'll escape. Besides, that other person paralyzed me, she probably has the same power_."

"To explain the trade, I'll have to explain a little bit about ourselves. We are known as asari, when we mate with other species, we meld with their mind and incorporate their own genetic material into our genome, giving our offspring the powers of the asari and the other parent. As I already said, you have information on Danzo; however, you have something else even more valuable. Mate with me and give us your ability to change shape, in exchange we will let you send a messenger pigeon to Danzo, you can tell him anything you want."

"_Meld with my mind… it's a long shot, but this may give me an opportunity to gather valuable information on the Blue Novas_."

"And how do I know that you will actually send the letter?"

"You can send it yourself." Biara paused, "Let me explain myself more clearly. You give us information, then we let you send the message, then you mate with me. If we don't let you send the message then you won't mate with me and we won't get obtain your power."

"_I don't like this, but I don't think I have a choice. I can feed her fake information then try to peer into her mind when we mind meld. Not sure how I will escape but I'll have to figure out something on the fly_."

"Alright, I'll agree."

"I'm glad."

Biara and Lyra talked for several hours, Lyra mainly lied but did scatter in a few truths. Biara knew she was lying but didn't care. She would have access to everything in Lyra's mind very shortly.

Biara cut off Lyra midsentence, "That is enough, we have sufficient information to carry out our mission."

She walked out the bedroom, signaling for Lyra to follow her. Several other Asari commandos joined them as they walked out onto the roof of the compound. Biara and the other commandos were veiled, only their eyes were visible. Biara pointed to a pigeon coup, "There is pen and paper over there, write your message and send it. Don't bother trying to escape, you'll be paralyzed instantly."

Lyra wrote her message. When she was finished writing, she hesitated, looking around to memorize the surroundings. "_Well, at least I got this message off_. _I really don't like going into a dangerous situation without any sort of plan but I don't really have a choice._"

Lyra sealed the envelope, gave it to the pigeon and cast a hypnosis jutsu that would cause the pigeon to fly to Danzo. Lyra and Biara walked back into the compound, swiftly returning to Biara's bedchamber. The door shut behind them.

"So uh… how do asari mate?"

Biara laughed, "Asari mate in the most boring way possible. By connecting their mind to their host and copying their genetic material. As with many other flawed aspects of asari society, the Blue Novas have rejected that boring form of mating. We still copy our mate's genome, but we have fun while we're doing it."

"_Going through with this is probably my best chance at survival, I'm not sure if I will be able to learn anything during mind meld or whatever she called but I'll try. At least she is pretty, I've certainly been with much worse looking women_."

Biara removed Lyra's top and bra, gently licking at her breasts. Her long, blue tongue felt cool against her skin, causing her nipples to rapidly stiffen. Biara removed her own top, revealing dark blue breasts that dwarfed Lyra's rather small ones.

"_She probably plans to kill me after this, but maybe I can change her mind_."

Lyra leaned into Biara and began suckling on her right breast. Her hand fondled her other breast while her tongue swirled around her nipple. She could feel Biara's fingers as they nimbly removed her pants and panties, leaving her fully exposed. The asari smiled at her, silently asking if she wanted more. Lyra smiled back as the asari sat on the edge of the bed and placed Lyra on her lap. "_Just keep going along with this. I don't like my chances of survival but this will probably increase my odds_."

Her train of thought was interrupted by the feeling of a long finger sliding into her. Lyra was still thinking of ways to save herself, but it was proving rather difficult to think while her insides were being massaged.

"Are all humans this soft and warm inside or just you?" Biara's left arm wrapped around Lyra's waist as she slid two more fingers inside.

Lyra began to lose herself, the pleasure was unreal. Biara's three fingers gently massaged Lyra's g-spot while her biotic powers increased the pleasure even more. She leaned her head back on the larger asari and felt her concerns slip away as her body was caressed.

Biara spoke in a soft voice, "Would you like to become one with me?"

"Yes." Lyra didn't put any thought into her answer, she wasn't thinking much at all at this point. It was as if she was sliding into an ocean of warm water, she knew she should be thinking about escaping but she didn't seem to care anymore.

Biara focused as she began to mind meld with Lyra, looking at her most intimate thoughts and memories. Lyra's genetic code merged with Biara's as the mating process completed.

The asari stood up, her hand glowing blue as she looked down at Lyra. She smiled as the human's neck contorted, her body falling lifeless to the floor.

-Naruto's Apartment

Miranda stumbled towards a chair in the corner of Naruto's room, tripping and falling on his bed halfway to her destination, she briefly tried to get up but decided it was probably better than the chair anyways.

"I'm extraordinarily stuffed."

Naruto added, "And extraordinarily drunk."

"I'm not drunk, I'm amusingly intoxicated."

"Is that between lights-out drunk and claiming that your actually sober despite your slur kind of drunk?."

"No, it's when you're drunk enough that people are amused by your actions but not worried for your health."

"They might have had a reason to be worried for your health if you had spent anymore of my money on alcohol. That was about 9 missions worth of money."

"You managed to spend even more of your own money without ordering anything more expensive than ramen."

"I like quantity more than quality."

"Yeah I noticed, you usually don't order 8 courses of the same thing at a five star restaurant."

"That's why I don't go to any restaurant with more than 1 star."

"You should be more responsible."

"Says the drunk girl who now owes me money."

"We've been over this, I'm not drunk, I'm amusingly intoxicated."

True to her words, Miranda stumbled and almost fell down twice on the way to the bathroom, getting a chuckle out of Naruto. He laid down on the bed, spreading out and yawning as the shower turned on.

While Naruto was still smiling to himself, Miranda's mood was quickly souring.

"_Damn it! How am I not pregnant yet? My biotic method ensures a 100% chance, and I should definitely be able to detect it by now. Is it possible that I screwed up? Was I not focusing enough? I doubt it… but I guess I'll try again." _Miranda picked up a bar of soap,_ "I hope Naruto is horny_."

"You there!?"

"Yeah… I haven't gone anywhere."

"Could you come in here for a second?"

Naruto entered the bathroom, looking at Miranda's clothes on the floor, her form was barely visible through the foggy shower door.

"You called."

"Could you hand me a bar of soap, I ran out."

Naruto picked up the soap and tried to open the shower door.

"You can't come in here with your clothes on, I wouldn't want you to get them wet."

He smiled, quickly removing everything he had on. The shower door opened with no resistance this time.

"Here's the so…"

The soap and Naruto's jaw dropped at the same time. The sight of Miranda's soaped up body was more than he could handle.

"I felt bad about spending all your money, so I figured I should repay you." The previously drunk Miranda was now 100% sober, a biotic trick she had learned long ago.

"I… uhh…"

Miranda pulled Naruto into her body, wrapped her arms around him and slid her tongue into his mouth. "_I didn't think it was possible for someone to hyperventilate and smile at the same time. You learn something new everyday_." The feel of Miranda's breath billowing into his mouth eventually calmed Naruto down. His hands slid around the small of her back, pulling the two closer together.

With a rather sinister looking grin on his face, "So you're going to pay me back?"

"I intend to."

Naruto's hands slid lower, groping Miranda's butt.

"Take me."

"Is that a request?"

"No, it's an order."

Miranda leaned back against the shower wall, thrusting her hips forward. Her eyes closed as Naruto wrapped his hands around her pelvis. Her eyes flew open as he suddenly spun her around and aligned himself.

"Whoa there sailor, that's the wrong port."

"The captain likes this port better, he says it's a lot deeper and a lot warmer."

"_I really shouldn't let him do this, I need to get pregnant ASAP. But truth be told… I like this "port" better too." _She smiled._ "I guess I could let him have his fun for a little while_."

Naruto looked down at the huge, snow white butt splayed out before him, he still didn't entirely understand why Miranda was so into him, but at this point, he really didn't care. He lined his shaft up with the entrance to Miranda's backdoor and slowly pushed the tip in.

"Captain to port authority. Permission to enter port?"

"Permission granted."

His hands wrapped around her hips as he pushed half of his "boat" into port.

"This is by far the biggest port I have ever seen."

Miranda grinned, "It only looks big because the boat is so small."

Naruto griped her hips tighter as he slowly worked the other half inside, he could hear Miranda gasping as he pushed into her, the warm walls griping him tightly as he entered. Naruto let out a low moan as he hilted himself inside her, his pelvis resting on her large rear end. Naruto ran his finger down the length of Miranda's spine, removing it then kissing her once one the neck before he began thrusting.

The ocean seethed as the boat entered and exited port over and over again. Miranda was thrusting back in the opposite direction, feeling Naruto's arms wrap around her stomach. He could hear her breathing heavily as he slid his hands lower, pushing a single finger inside her. Naruto began moving his shaft in circles each time he was fully inside, thrusting his fingers deep inside her at the same time. Miranda's breathing became louder and more urgent, as Naruto continued his routine.

The waters of the port raged as Miranda orgasmed, her moaning pushing Naruto over the top. On its final trip in, the ship jettisoned long white streams into the deep, warm waters of the port.

Several minutes after the water had calmed and the ship had stopped moving, Naruto pulled out of Miranda, slapping her on the butt as he did.

"Looks like the ship was big enough to withstand the angry waters of the port."

She smiled, "Or maybe the sea god felt bad for the tiny boat."

She kissed him on the cheek before exiting the shower.

Miranda sighed, "_Well, I guess I'm not getting pregnant tonight. O well, I still have over a week left, should be no problem_."


	6. Day 6

Day 6:

-Just outside the thunder country

Iria inspected the checkpoint, watching as the guards escorted travelers into little huts, looked at their papers and then granted them passage into the country or denied them. One brave soul tried to sneak through without any authorization, guards swarmed all over him, eventually dragging his bloodied body away from the gates.

Zeke spoke up, "So… how are we going to get through?"

"I don't know, I wasn't expecting this. You're the one leading us, is there some way we can get in without passing through a guard station?"

"I don't know the land of thunder very well, but they are very guarded and every road into the country will probably have a checkpoint." Zeke paused, "They look even more paranoid than usual, I wonder if something happened?"

They watched for the next hour, trying to think of a way to get through. Iria finally said something, "I have seen a few people get in without any papers, what if we say we don't have any but that we mean no harm, we look innocent enough. We could also bribe if that might help."

"If we don't have papers they are going to inspect us and realize very quickly that you are blue and clearly not human. The situation will get ugly fast." He smiled, "But don't fret, it should be fairly easy if we follow my plan."

"You have a plan, I'm impressed. You don't seem like the think ahead planning type. So what is this plan of yours?"

"You walk up to the guard station, take your clothes off and prance around in front of it. While they are distracted, I run through. Then you figure out a way to get yourself through."

"What a brilliant plan. It can't possibly fail and doesn't at all sound like that was dreamt up by a five year old."

"I'm smart like that." Zeke suddenly became extremely focused. "But on a serious note, the guards appear to rotate every thirty minutes. When the next rotation happens, I'll bunshin into one of the guards then kill and dispose of him. You approach me a few minutes later, I'll pretend to look you over then let you in. Then I follow you a few minutes later. But before we do that, we're going to have to make you look like a human." Zeke smiled, "Blonde or brunette?"

"What?..." Iria had no idea what was going on.

Zeke gazed at a roughly 25 year old woman walking down the road about 100 feet away, he suddenly made a seal and gestured towards Iria, she immediately took on the form of the woman.

Iria looked herself over, "I'm impressed." She paused. "But going back to your plan. What happens if they see you or you make too much noise? What happens if there are more guards on the other side? In fact we don't even know what's on the other side."

"The huts are pretty hard to see into, I'll be fast and silent, they won't hear or see anything. It isn't perfect but I don't have any better ideas, do you?"  
Iria didn't like the plan at all but she didn't have a better one "No… that's better than anything I can think of."

They waited until the next guard shift, then looked at each other and nodded. Zeke joined the stream of people heading towards the huts, quickly taking note of how scared they all looked. "_This definitely doesn't seem normal. Why is the thunder country denying so many civilians, they clearly don't pose any sort of threat_." Zeke was eventually grabbed and led into one of the huts.

"Hey there, nice day for a border crossing." The guard stared back at him with crossed arms and a rather nasty expression, "So…" Zeke whipped his head around as three more guards entered the hut, two large and rather brutish looking men stood on each side of a cute and extremely young looking female ninja.

One of her escorts spoke up, "Is this him?"

"No I don't think so but let's search him anyways." The female ninja walked over and immediately began patting him down, feeling for any weapons.

"I didn't know you thunder country ninja were so generous, offering free touching by cute female ninja. Do I get a strip search too or does that cost extra?"

"You want a strip search? That can be arranged." The female ninja snapped her fingers. Zeke was immediately knocked to the floor, where he received a rather intimate searching from the two male escorts.

"He is unarmed."

"_That is now the third time some form of that joke has gotten me in trouble, I should really stop using it_."

The original guard spoke up, "Are you three done yet?"

"Yeah we're done, this isn't him." The three guards walked out.

"_So they are searching for someone or something, I figured as much_."

The guard spoke up again, "Show it to me."

"I was already strip searched, you had your chance to see it."

The guard sighed, "I mean your papers."

"_I guess guards aren't allowed to laugh_."

Zeke reached into his pocket like he was preparing to take something out, as he did so, he placed his hand on the guards forearm for about a half second then removed it. The guard didn't seem to notice. Zeke suddenly leaped at the guard, repeatedly stabbing him with his kunai. The guard tried to shout and fight back but no words came and his limbs didn't move. Zeke shoved his dead body into the corner of the room, quickly looked him over before using illusion jutsu to take his appearance. "_No alarms or shouts… I guess that means no one knows_." He counted out 45 seconds then signaled to Iria, "Next up!"

When Iria entered the hut he only spent about two seconds pretending to look her over before ushering her through. His ears straining, listening to the silence and hoping it continued, "_Please get through unnoticted_."

"Zeke!"

"Shit! Something went wrong."

Zeke bolted to where the voice had come from, then slowed as Iria came into view. "_What the hell is going on_...?" Guards were everywhere but so were mysterious ninja in black outfits.

"Were under attack!" Some guard rushed up to him, "We need to secure the safe room immediately, follow me!" Zeke ignored him and rushed towards Iria, preparing to kill the black ninja that were rapidly surrounding her. Fortunately that wasn't necessary, Iria raised her hands and sent them all flying. The two sprinted into thunder country, hoping to escape unnoticed in the chaos.

-Naruto's apartment

Naruto woke up first, immediately rolling over and kissing Miranda. "_Probably should have told her that I have to bring her to the hospital today. O well, I don't think she will care too much. Besides, I don't think she actually has anything to hide_." He gently nudged her, waking her from sleep. She rolled over and looked at him, "Hey you."

"Hey." Naruto paused. "I forgot to tell you this yesterday but Sakura wants me to bring you into Konoha hospital, someone wants to run more tests or something."

"I thought that wasn't happening for a few more days. Are you sure she said today?"

"Yeah I'm sure. I don't really know why they have to do it, it's pretty clear that you're just a random civilian."

"Did she say it HAD to be today? Could we delay it a few more days?"

"No… I think they want to do it today. Is that okay?" Miranda seemed a lot more hesitant than Naruto imagined she would be.

"Yeah, I guess its fine."

"_I guess I don't have anything to fear, if anything, they will see more images that don't make any sense to them. More images of space, the Cerebus headquarters and whatever else they see_."

"Okay good. Sakura wanted me to bring you over this morning, are you ready to leave now."

"Yeah sure, I'll be ready in a moment."

Naruto waited by the door as Miranda got dressed, "_So… if they do determine that she is innocent, is she going to leave…? I really hope not, she is my best and pretty much only friend._" Naruto's train of thought was interrupted as Miranda brushed by him on her way out the door,

"You coming?"

"Yeah right behind you."

The two walked briskly towards the Konoha general hospital, it was early in the morning and the streets were largely empty. A few pigeons and some stray dogs provided their only company. Miranda looked over at Naruto.

"You've been silent and kinda depressed looking since we left, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking about things."

"Like what?"

"Personal things, I don't really want to talk about it right now."

"You can talk to me."

"Well… it's personal, but it's also kind of about you. I'll talk to you eventually but I feel like I need think about it more before I do that."

"You're afraid I'll leave if they tell that I'm free to go."

Naruto stopped in his tracks, he avoided eye contact as he replied, "Yeah pretty much." He paused, "Its not that I don't trust you or anything, its just that I'm not really sure what incentive you have to stay here once you don't have to. And honestly… your pretty much the only real friend I have. I know this sounds incredibly selfish but I really don't want you to go."

Miranda wasn't really sure what to say, she certainly wasn't going to return to some other country on this planet since she wasn't from here to begin with. But she was eventually going to return to Cerebus. Originally, she no absolutely no problem with that and was actually looking forward to finishing this mission as fast as possible. But that desire to leave was slowly eroding. She wasn't sure why it was eroding but the desire was definitely less than it used to be. It now seemed rather obvious to her that she didn't want to leave because of Naruto.

And suddenly it hit her, she remembered the second part of the mission that she hadn't really been thinking about. Once she became pregnant and left, Cerebus was going to destroy the planet, killing Naruto and everyone else here. She was opposed to that before meeting Naruto but she was now completely against it.

"Are you okay, you've been staring into space for a while now."

"Yeah… i'm fine, it turns out I have some thinking to do myself." A sad look spread over her face, "I promise I won't leave in the next few days and that I'll say goodbye before I leave if I eventually have to. Why don't we talk about this later when we have both had more time to think about it."

"Okay."

They continued walking towards the hospital, both looking significantly less happy than they were only moments earlier.

-Thunder country

Iria finally stopped running, signaling for Zeke to stop too.

"Think we lost them?"

"I don't think they were ever chasing us to begin with."

"Yeah, possibly not. Although I seem to remember you bolting out of there like a bat out of hell."

"Well yeah, I'm not stupid, they might have been chasing us. Although I think they were probably too preoccupied to bother."

"Do you have any idea what nation those ninja were from or why they suddenly attacked the guard station?"

"I have absolutely no idea but I don't think it matters to us."

Iria smiled, "Are you going to stay disguised as a guard forever."

Zeke returned to normal form, "Better?"

"Definitely a little less attractive, but acceptable because it will draw less attention to us."

"To us? I'm pretty sure we planned on splitting apart once we got into the thunder country. In fact, your exact words were, "I need to get far away from here and you will help me. In exchange, I will release you when we are far enough away." I'm pretty sure in another country qualifies as far enough away."

"_Shit, I was afraid of this. I definitely can't get by without him_."

"I meant farther than this, besides I still have my biotic powers and I can restrain you if need be."

"You aren't the only one with "powers" I didn't get into Root because of my good looks. I plan on leaving and there isn't a whole lot you can do to stop me, unless you plan on not sleeping until I leave."

She knew he was right, her biotic powers weren't very effective when she was asleep, he could pretty easily kill her or escape, and permanently restraining him clearly wasn't a viable option.

"And what if you can't get through the guard station by yourself, or what if those black ninjas attack you?"

"You're grasping at straws."

Iria glared at him. "What's so exciting in Konoha that you have to get back immediately? You're probably going to pick up where you left off, flirting and getting rejected by pretty women. You could save yourself time and do that with me."

Zeke smiled, "You know me too well." He thought for a few seconds, "Tell you what, I'll continue traveling around with you if you make a promise."

"_This can't be good… O well, I don't really have a choice_"

"What's the promise?"

"When this is all over, you have to go on a date with me"

"A date? Just one?"

"Yep, just one."

"Okay, I'll make that promise."

Zeke held out his pinkie. Iria stared at it, "Is this some bizarre Konoha tradition?"

"We made a promise, now we have to pinkie shake."

"Pinkie shake? That sounds like something only children would do."

"It is something only children do, adults usually use binding legal contracts for their "promises", but we don't have any way to make one of those so we'll have to settle for a pinkie shake."

Iria stuck out her pinkie and sealed the deal

"Good, then I'll continue traveling with you."

Iria gave him a wry smile "I'm glad."

"_Honestly, traveling around in the thunder country sounds like more fun than going back to Konoha and dealing with Danzo._"

Zeke and Iria continued down the road, heading towards whatever town that road led to.

-Konoha General Hospital

Sakura waved to Naruto as he left the room, she then turned her attention to Miranda. She stared at her for a second like she was some kind of exotic creature, "_Wow… she is really beautiful, almost unnaturally so, I hadn't really paid attention to her before._" Sakura snapped back to attention.

"So I figure I should tell you why you're here."

"That would be nice."

"I'm actually not allowed to tell you a whole lot. Actually, I don't think I'm supposed to tell you anything but I will anyways." Sakura gathered her thoughts before continuing. "Shortly after you arrived in Konoha, you were seen talking to a man named Danzo. I can't really go into detail, but Danzo isn't trusted, we need to make sure you aren't somehow involved with him."

Miranda thought hard, trying to remember who Danzo was, the name was definitely familiar. "O _right, he was the one I met in the library_."

Miranda spoke up, "I don't really remember my conversation with Danzo but I do remember thinking he was definitely plotting something. Frankly, he seemed fairly evil."

"Fairly evil is an extremely polite way of describing Danzo. And yes, he is definitely plotting something, but he is always plotting something. However, we think his plans might be more significant than usual."

Sakura continued, "So are you willing to let Inoichi look into your mind again?"

"I'm not involved with Danzo in any way so I have nothing to hide."

"_Well… I do have the Cerebus mission to hide, but I don't think they can learn about that just by looking into my mind again_."

"Okay, so I'll take that as a yes. Follow me please." Sakura walked out of the room, gesturing for Miranda to follow. Miranda was led into a small windowless room with a small table and two chairs in the center.

"Inoichi will be in a minute." Sakura quietly closed the door.

"_I really hope I know what I'm doing. If they somehow learn of my mission the whole thing could be compromised_." Miranda's heart was racing, "_Should I make a run for it? I can probably come up with some excuse for why I had to leave. No… I doubt I would make it out of here anyways. They are extremely polite to me but would probably restrain me if I tried to escape_" The several minutes felt like an afternoon as Miranda anxiously waited. Her fingers tapping loudly on the desk were the only sound.

"Hello." Miranda looked up, "Hi there." Inoichi's warm smile and pleasant demeanor contradicted what he was here to do.

"So, shall we get started?" His smile was annoying friendly.

"_I'd prefer he just scowl at me, at least then I wouldn't feel like I was being investigated by a friend_."

"Yeah, I'm ready."

He put his hands on her forehead and closed his eyes. Miranda began to lose focus, she couldn't form thoughts or keep her attention on anything. A brief moment of panic occurred as she felt herself going unconscious.

"Thanks for your cooperation." He smiled again, "You can leave now, we'll tell you if we need to speak with you again."

"_I can leave? I thought we were just starting. Guess I blanked out_."

Miranda stood up, smiling back at Inoichi before leaving. She struggled to look calm as she walked out of the hospital, fighting the urge to sprint out of the building. "_I don't have anything to worry about, they have no idea why I'm here and I doubt they will be able to figure it out_." Miranda wasn't doing a particularly good job convincing herself, "_But what if they do find out why I'm here? Should I try to get out of Konoha? No, that wouldn't solve anything if I haven't accomplished my mission yet. The Illusive man is far scarier than anyone on this planet, better to piss off the locals than get on his bad side. Besides, I doubt they would make any rash decisions purely based off of confusing images that they saw in my mind, at the very least they would bring me in for questioning again_." Miranda breathed deeply, finally convinced that she was safe, at least for the moment. She took the long route back to Naruto's, slowly walking through the streets of Konoha.

-Outskirts of unknown town

After nearly an hour of silence, Zeke spoke up. "We've been passing a lot of people lately, we must be nearing a town."

"You're probably right, do you think we should stop?"

"Yeah I guess so, we should find out where we are and come up with a plan at the very least." Zeke spoke up again, "By the way, why haven't we been using that map projector thing of yours, it would make traveling a lot easier."

"Oh you didn't notice, I threw it in a river before we left Konoha."

"Threw it in a river? Why?"

"My former comrades may have been able to track me down if they knew the location of it."

"It serves as a beacon?"

"I don't know, but knowing the people I used to work with, that wouldn't surprise me at all. Better to be safe and not have it with me."

"So I guess we have to find our way like regular folk."

"Yep."

As the town came into sight Iria looked herself over making sure she still looked like a human, "Does this illusion of yours ever wear off?"

"Only if you take physical damage or if I dispel it."

"Good to know."

The two walked towards the village.

"So I've been wondering something. You could have chosen any women in that crowd when you were picking someone to use for your illusion. Why did you choose her?"

"Blondes put out more than brunettes."

"I was afraid you would say something like that."

Iria looked around, the town was a decent size, nowhere near the scale of Konoha but still pretty big "Soo… any idea where we're going."

Zeke turned to her, "We aren't going anywhere at the moment, is there someplace we should be going?"

"We should probably try to find out where we are and get directions."

"Directions to where though, we haven't planned where we are going."

"Yeah that's true, I guess we should stop for a while and plan."

Zeke reached into his pocket, "I have enough money for an inn, that's probably the best idea."

"I'm not sleeping with you if that's what on your mind."

"Well I'm not paying for two rooms so I guess you get the sofa."

"You wouldn't make a lady sleep on the sofa would you?"

"If she didn't split the cost of the room with me, I would definitely consider it."

They walked for a few more minutes, "Hacienda by the bay… doesn't look like a hacienda and I don't see any bay, but it seems like a decent enough inn."

Zeke paid for the cheapest room available, got the key and walked up the stairs to the third floor. "Here we are." Iria immediately made a face as they walked into the room,

"Did you purposefully buy the crappiest room available?"

"More or less."

Zeke stretched out on the bed, "Well I don't see a sofa so I guess you'll have to settle for the floor."

Iria sighed, "Well… the bed is big enough, I guess we can sleep on opposite sides."

Zeke sat up, "I'm hungry, and I can't plan on an empty stomach."

"Yeah me too."

"So… any chance you have any money to split the cost of food?"

"Nope."

"O well, I guess you'll have to make it up to me by going on two dates instead of one when this is over."

"Fair enough."

They walked out the door several minutes later, spending only a few moments searching before they found a decent looking pub. Zeke tried to put his arm around Iria as they approached but his request was denied.

-Naruto's apartment

Naruto walked quickly towards his apartment, he wasn't entirely sure why the knot in his stomach refused to away, he didn't think Miranda was going to leave him, if she was going to she probably would have left already. His brain knowing that didn't matter to his stomach or heart, which was still beating rapidly as he opened the door. "_Good, still here_." His heart rate slowed.

"You alive?"

Miranda flipped over, "Yeah I'm fine. Just resting." She sat up, rubbing her hand across her forehead as she yawned.

"You know, it's rude to drool on other people's beds."

Miranda didn't respond, or give any indication that she had heard. "So… how was your visit. Did they finally prove your innocence?"

Miranda finally looked at him, "O, no… not really, nothing happened."

"Nothing? Something had to have happened, either they think your guilty or they think you aren't so," Miranda interrupted him.

"They read my mind again, then let me go. I'm sure this will all be over soon, I'm just annoyed that it's taking so long."

"But there's nothing to be worries about right? You're innocent so they will eventually stop bothering you. Right?"

"I don't know. They should. But I have a bad feeling."

"Why? There is nothing to be nervous about, you're innocent and they will eventually."

"Slow down a minute, getting this worked up won't solve anything. Yes, I'm innocent, I don't have any reason to be nervous but I am anyways, I'll get over it."

Naruto seemed to be calming down. "So you're staying?"

"Yes. But you're suppose to pretend to be worried about me not just about whether I'm staying or not."

Naruto was silent, "I'm sorry, I really am worried about you, but… we've kind of become close, at least I think so, so I kinda freaked out when I thought you might leave."

"Yeah I know, I didn't mean to say that." Now it was Miranda's turn to be silent.

"_He's right… we are becoming close. Shit… this wasn't supposed to happen. The mission was supposed to be easy, have him get me pregnant then leave. Simple and easy. So why did it turn into this?_" Miranda didn't want to admit it, but she already knew the answer to that question. "_It turned into this because I allowed myself to become attached to him. But why am I attached to him…? He is half my age and about as charismatic as your average krogan_." Miranda sighed, "_Probably because he is the first person who truly seems to care about me for reasons other than my body or my rank in Cerebus_."

Having devoted pretty much her entire adult life to Cerebus, she hadn't really had time to reflect on the state of her life. It was kind of pathetic that she couldn't think of a single person who cared for her, other than this strange yellow haired boy.

"Miranda? You've been starring into space for a while"

She snapped back to attention, "Right sorry about that. Where were we?"

"Nowhere really." The awkward silence extended for several seconds.

"So, what are you planning to do exactly? They haven't proven your innocence but you think they will soon. Are you planning on staying?" Naruto looked down, a depressed look on his face, "I'm sorry for focusing on it, but the thought of you leaving is stressing me out."

"Yeah, I can understand that I guess." Naruto's anxiety was palpable. "Honestly, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. Staying here with you seems like the best option for the moment. I have no idea where I'm from so it's not like I can leave and go home."

"_I really don't like lying to him like this but I don't really have any other options. Not like I can say, "Yeah I'm staying until you get me pregnant then I'm returning to space." O well, might as well enjoy this while it lasts, since I probably will be leaving within the week, at least I hope so_."

Naruto gave her a half smile, "Well… that's something I guess. I'll try not to think about it."

Naruto looked around his apartment, "Looks like my ramen stash is exhausted, wana go out to eat?"

"I'd love to."

-Thunder country

Zeke stumbled out the door, his arm slung over the equally drunk Iria.

"Don't ever come back!" They both tried to run but neither had the coordination required, it took five minutes and three falls to travel the 500 feet between the pub and their hotel room.

"What do you think got him so bent out of shape?"

Iria collapsed onto the bed, dragging Zeke down with her "Probably when you meant to head for the bathroom but actually entered the kitchen and threw up in their sink. Or when you did it again fifteen minutes later. Either one really."

"Good point." The rest of Zeke's sentence trailed off as he passed out on the bed, Iria fell asleep several moments later.

-Root compound

Danzo opened the letter, before reading he looked at the bottom, seeing that it was sent by Iria. "I'm sorry master, I don't think I'll be returning. The Blue Nova compound is located at the intersection of Glendale and Citrus Street. The building looks inconspicuous but it's the right one. When the asari mate the offspring gains the "powers" of both parents. I have more information to share with you but I don't have time at the moment. I fear this is the end of my service under you." Danzo smiled, "Its just the beginning."


	7. Day 7

Day 7:

-Blue Nova compound

Lyra looked down at the dead human, her eyes fixating on her own dead body. No thoughts entered her mind as she stared blankly. Her gaze moved down to her arms, they were blue and much colder than she remembered. Her head smacked the bed frame as she fainted.

-Thunder country

Zeke opened his eyes, the blurry world slowly coming into focus. "_My head_…" He was no stranger to hangovers, but this one topped them all. "_Ugh… I guess the thunder country likes its alcohol strong_." He tried to sit up but was held down by something. A quick look at his chest revealed that "something" to be Iria, sprawled out and drooling on his chest. "_Funny, I don't remember releasing the jutsu, guess I can't maintain it with a hangover. O well, no one saw her so it doesn't matter_." He gently rolled Iria off of him, allowing him to sit up. "_So… what's my plan from here? I seem to be traveling with Iria, but I don't exactly have an end goal at the moment. I guess I can't really plan anything until I know what Iria is trying to accomplish, although I get the feeling she isn't entirely sure either_." Zeke rolled off the bed, barely managing to walk into the bathroom and get a glass of water. The cool water made him feel a bit better, at least enough to stop the nausea. A cool hand touched his neck, the surprise causing him to swallow water down the wrong pipe.

"You're a jumpy one."

"You move too quietly."

"Comes with the job."

"You need a new career then. You would definitely be way more likeable as a model or waitress or something, the whole commando thing is a pretty big turnoff."

Iria probably would have responded rather violently, but she was way to tired and hungover to care. "You're one to talk. Sketchy assassin/womanizer sums you up pretty well."

"Life would be terribly boring if people held themselves to the same standards they hold everyone else to."

Iria sighed, "So, moving on from that rather inane subject matter, can you put the illusion on me again?"

"Sure." Zeke quickly recast the genjutsu, giving Iria the form of the blonde again.

He turned around, staring at himself in the mirror. "Now you're almost as good looking as me."

"I was thinking of…" he turned around, realizing that Iria was long gone.

She had already exited the bathroom, leaving unnoticed just as she had entered. "_In a bizarre way, I'm starting to enjoy his batshit crazy way of thinking_." She walked out the door before hearing a response.

-Blue Nova compound

"_These aren't mine, and these aren't mine, and these definitely aren't mine_." Lyra touched her left leg, the smooth blue skin felt alien to fingers,_ "and these aren't mine either_." She attempted to find a logical solution, desperately trying to avoid slipping into total hysteria. For the first time in her life, she was completely unable to comprehend her current situation. Her body, or what she thought was her body, was clearly dead, its limpness and bent neck certainly suggested that it was dead. Seeing her own body on the floor was almost as confusing as being stuck in someone else's body. Lyra had always been able to take other forms, but this was different, this wasn't her own body transforming into a new one, this was her stuck in someone else's body, or something like that. "_What if…?_" Lyra froze, suddenly looking at her surroundings. Her memory of the last few hours flooded back to her, "_This is the Blue Nova compound, Biara was about to… or DID, just kill me. Except… I seem to be inhabiting her body now._" Scenarios that could possibly explain the baffling situation began racing through her mind, but she quickly cast them aside, deciding to focus on her immediate safety first.

"_How do I get out of here? Should I leave… or stay and try to extract information? No… that won't work, they will definitely realize that something is wrong. I should escape for now. But what to do after that?_" Danzo's withered face suddenly appeared in her mind, "_Of course, I should seek Danzo's counsel, he will know what to do, better to let him take care of the situation_."

"_First off, I have to find some clothes._" She quickly dressed her former body in her own clothes, then put on Biara's top. "_I can't walk through Konoha like this…_" Scanning the room, she spotted a brown, inconspicuous looking coat complete with a hood that covered her face, "_Biara probably had this exactly for this purpose_." Lyra walked towards the door, nearly tripping over her own legs. "_Will definitely take a while to get used to these long limbs_." She opened the door a crack, peering into the hallway, "_Coast is clear_." She stepped out, then slid back into the room. "_What's my plan… should I just make a run for it?_" She looked at her body again. "With very little thought, she picked up her former body, slung it over her shoulder and began walking down the hall." She made every effort to look rushed without looking nervous, "_I don't think the Blue Nova have any idea what happened. If I walk through the compound looking like I urgently have to take this body somewhere maybe they will leave me alone_." She wasn't thrilled with the plan, it was extremely risky, but she didn't have any better options.

Lyra's thoughts were interrupted.

"Matron I have the files that you requested, would you like to see them now?" The unknown asari seemed rather unsure of herself, she was staring at the body but clearly wasn't about to say anything about it.

"I'm busy." She walked away, avoiding eye contact with her apparent underling. As she traveled through the base, several more asari passed her, all of them pretending not to notice her cargo. "_I guess they're afraid of me_." It took several minutes to find her way out of the base, but she eventually escaped, squinting as she walked out into the morning sun. "_It's morning? I guess I was unconscious for a while."_ Looking back at the asari compound,_ "I can't believe I made it out of there. But am I really safe? Maybe they know something is wrong and they are waiting to ambush me. Hmm… but that wouldn't make sense, now that I am outside of their compound it would be almost impossible to catch me, and they would probably be spotted. I guess I really am safe, at least for now, though I should hurry to Danzo." _Lyra looked down at her cargo_, "But what to do about my body, I can't just carry it through town." _She sighed_, "I guess this is what illusion jutsu is for." _She turned her body into a log and started towards the root compound, hoping no one inspected her too closely as she walked. "_Good thing the streets are completely deserted this early_."She pulled the hood tighter over her face, briskly walking towards the Root compound.

-Streets of Konoha

Sakura walked lazily down the street, watching as the city of Konoha gradually woke up. Technically, she was on a mission, but only sort of. She was supposed to "check in" on Naruto and Miranda. Obviously, that was code for "spy on them" but even knowing that, she wasn't entirely sure what she was suppose to do. "_Do I just awkwardly watch them for a few hours then report back? Tell them that Naruto was himself, he ate a bunch of ramen and generally acted like an oaf. Miranda… well, I don't really know a whole lot about her, but I doubt there will be anything terribly interesting to report. Even if she was a spy or whatever they think she is, she definitely won't do anything while I am there_."

She sat down on a park bench, calming her mind before continuing with her mission, "_I really don't want to do this, but I guess I don't have a choice_." Her attention was suddenly pulled away, "_Did that woman with the brown hood on have blue skin? She… didn't look human_." She shook her head and sighed, "_I must be even more tired than I thought, hallucinating and thinking I'm seeing aliens_."

She walked the rest of the way without saying a word or thinking about the mission at all. She paused briefly before knocking on Naruto's door, taking a deep breath "_Might as well get this over with_."

Her hand rapped loudly against the door. No answer. "_Is he away? This is earlier than he usually gets up_." She knocked again, louder this time. Still no answer. After waiting several minutes, she knocked again, this time loud enough to wake the neighbors. "_Was that Naruto I just heard? It sounded like him, but it sounded like him groaning not speaking. Well… since he seems to be ignoring I guess I have no choice_." Sakura pushed open the door and quietly stepped inside, immediately freezing as she looked at the bed.

"_Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that Naruto on top of Miranda_?" Closing her eyes for several seconds didn't cause the unimaginable scene to disappear, "_I guess it isn't a figment of my imagination_." They both had their eyes closed but the expressions on their faces made it abundantly clear that they were enjoying themselves immensely.

Sakura backed out, almost tripping over her own feet as she rushed away from the two interlocked bodies. Her knees felt weak as she leaned against the walls of Naruto's apartment, her legs sliding out from under her. "_Well… this changes th_ings." Sakura's mind was racing, trying to determine her course of action. "_Should I tell the hokage? Should I walk inside and confront Naruto?_" Sakura breathed deeply, calming herself down. "_I shouldn't do anything right now. I'll come back later and talk to Naruto, make a decision then_." Sakura walked back towards the hospital.

-Root compound

Lyra slowed as she entered the Root compound, "Safe." She paused, scanning her surroundings, "_But why are there no guards_?"

"I've been waiting." Danzo stepped out of the shadows, looking her over. "Place the body over there and follow me to my office." Lyra was beginning to recover from her state of shock as she followed Danzo, his presence and the familiar Root compound calmed her nerves.

"I have many questions and important…" Danzo hushed her. "In time."

"But my body…"

"I know. Follow me."

They entered the office, a looming empty space only adorned by a few pieces of furniture and sealed file cabinets. "_He's never allowed me in here before. Actually, I'm not sure that he's ever allowed anyone in here_." Danzo turned towards her, examining her in a rather unsettling way.

"It actually worked…" For the first time in her life, Lyra thought she saw a smile flash across Danzo's face.

He continued, "It's not my tendency to doubt myself, but I honestly didn't expect this plan to succeed."

In a frantic voice "Danzo, please allow me to explain the situation." She was silenced again.

"I'll be the one explaining the situation." He paused, "Sit down." Lyra looked over at the only chair in the room, a menacing amalgamation of black leather and wood. She sat down on the floor, looking up at Danzo.

"Where to begin… Well I guess I'll start with why you're in that body." He stared at the ceiling for several seconds before continuing. "As you know, you have the power to take on other people's forms. That unique power is the reason why I took you in as a child. However… I had always suspected that there was more to your power, that being able to take other forms was…" He paused, "A symptom, but not the power itself. The real power, as I have suspected for a long time, is that your soul isn't attached to your body." He closed his eyes, carefully picking his next words. "Most people have a "default form" they can use illusion jutsu to make it look different or some form of transformation jutsu to temporarily alter it, must they must always return to their original form. That isn't the case for you. You can change form, and permanently stay in any form because you don't have a default body. You seem to consider that young green haired girl to be your "default body" but that is merely an arbitrary decision you made."

Lyra interrupted him, "None of this explains why I am suddenly in Biara's body, or how you seemed to know this would happen."

"Yes I know, I was about to get to that part. Through spying on the asari, I discovered that they "mate" melding their minds with another individual and copying their genetic material to make a new individual. I suspected that if this were to happen with you, that your "wandering soul" would take over the body, and it looks like I was right. The entire scenario went exactly as I predicted, you mated with the asari leader and then she killed you. What she didn't know, is that your soul had already taken over her body and that it would replace her own the next time she slept."

Lyra was furious, not because Danzo had withheld information from her but because he seemed to regard her survival as inconsequential. "Yes, it worked, but your "plan" was more a guess, or a series of guesses I should say. If any one of those had been wrong I would be dead."

Danzo closed his eyes, "I have been keeping everybody in this organization alive through a "series of guesses" for many years. Countless people want to destroy Root, many of them living around us in this city. My guesses and predictions about future events and how to maintain power and leverage have kept you alive for years, the only difference is that you were always shielded from it until now."

Lyra was staring at the floor, still furious but smart enough to not risk irritating Danzo. "Am I needed at the moment or may I have some time to myself?"

"You won't be needed until tomorrow, or maybe the day after depending on how things play out. You may leave."

Lyra left the compound, making sure the hooded coat hid her face and body as she returned to her apartment.

-Thunder country

Zeke sat on the edge of the bed, thinking over his plan. "So Iria needs to stay away from her former teammates for an unspecified amount of time, which presumably ends when they leave. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing when they are leaving. The only way to find out would be to contact Root, I'm sure Danzo will know if they leave. Of course… that's IF they leave, we don't know that they won't be staying for several years."

Iria entered the room, interrupting his thoughts. "Hey there." He looked up,

"Hey yourself. I've been thinking about our current situation. I think it's best if you stay hidden until the asari leave, or at least until they stop chasing you."

"Yeah I've been thinking myself. I don't think we can just wait until the Blue Novas leave. They aren't going to leave until they accomplish their mission and who knows how long that will take. They may be here for several years and they won't stop looking for me until I am found… or dead."

Zeke interrupted, "What exactly is their mission?"

"Their mission is to carry out the will of Matriarch Alexeris. Alexeris had many ideas, but her most important was to create a higher form of asari. She wasn't the only one with that goal, in fact far from it. But the majority of the asari matriarchs despised her, which ultimately led to her execution. Her more fanatical followers formed a group known as the Blue Novas. They scattered all over the universe, attempting to realize her dream."

"And how are they going to achieve that?"

"Well for thousands of years, they didn't really have a goal, they just traveled around the universe spreading her ideas. Making a higher form of asari sounded great but no one really knew how to do it. But all of that changed when your planet was discovered."

"Our planet? What's so special about here?"

"You have a novel form of mental power unlike anything we have ever seen. When an asari mates, the offspring inherits the genetics of both parents. So by mixing asari biotics with your form of power, we could theoretically create offspring with both powers. This is the first time that carrying out Alexeris's will actually seems possible."

"So they're going to mate with citizens of this planet then leave?"

"I don't really know the plan. In fact, I doubt there is a coherent plan. The current matriarch of the Blue Novas is no longer rational, most of the organization doesn't approve of her but no one would dare stand up to her."

"Why? How hard can it be to overthrow one person?"

"Depending on the person, very difficult. You see, as asari grow increasingly older they continually lose physical power but continually gain mental power. The matriarch is astonishingly old, her mental powers are indescribable at this point. So no, she isn't getting overthrown anytime soon. When the current matriarch dies of old age, Biara will take over, she is next in line."

Zeke started into the distance, lost in thought, finally speaking up, "You don't seem very happy about all this. I get the feeling you don't agree with the Blue Nova's mission."

"I never said that!"

"No, but I'm pretty sure you think it."

Now it was Iria's turn to go silent for a while. A look of sadness spread over her face when she eventually spoke. "The Blue Novas are just going to get themselves killed, and probably millions or even billions of other people while they're at it. Most of the universe doesn't wish to see a "higher form" of asari, the entire universe will descend on them if they do achieve their goal." She laughed, "I guess the indoctrination failed on me."

"Indoctrination?"

"Yeah, the Blue Novas have this chant they sing several times a day, sometimes the matriarch gets overly zealous and has them repeat it over and over for hours on end."

"So let's hear it."

She smiled, "You sure, you might get indoctrinated."

"Don't worry about it, all previous attempts to make me follow directions have failed miserably."

"Here goes." Iria closed her eyes.

"Since time immemorial, the Blue Novas have carried out the will of our deceased matron Alexeris. Though she no longer graces the universe with her presence, her dream is eternal. Like the nova from an exploded star, we carry her light forever, enforcing the will of Alexeris upon the universe. Alexeris demanded the creation of a higher form of Asari but the cowardly matrons disagreed. They killed her and thought they extinguished her ideas. But they were foolish. Everyone has two lives. You lose your first life when you die and you lose your second life when you are forgotten. The Blue Novas will never forget her ideas and so we grant her immortality. On this planet we will realize her dream and make a higher form of Asari."

"So I take it the Blue Novas think rather highly of themselves, the arrogance expressed in that chant was almost palpable."

"All cults think highly of themselves, they couldn't function if they didn't."

"Yeah… I have some experience with that myself."

After a long silence, "So getting back to the present, what are we trying to achieve at the moment?"

"Iria stared at the ceiling, "Well like I stared to say before, we shouldn't wait for the Blue Novas to leave. They can't leave until the matriarch says they can, and that could be a while." She paused, "They seem to think I betrayed them somehow. Right after I captured you, I receive a message ordering me to report to headquarters. The matriarch needed to "speak to me" thing is… the matriarch never speaks to anyone other than Biara, unless she is severely displeased. I probably would have been jailed and/or executed, so I fled."

"So you think it's a setup?"

"It had to be. I didn't do anything to displease her." She sighed. "I need to try and contact Biara, have her speak to the matriarch and clear my name. Otherwise, I fear I'll be running forever."

"Any plan on how to do that?"

"No… none. Let me think for a while."

"Do you think it's safe to stay here?"

"Yeah, at least for today, we shouldn't stay long though, they'll be looking for me."

-Konoha Hospital

Naruto entered the hospital, walking through the sick ward until he found Sakura, "_I haven't seen her today and she already looks pissed off at me…_"

"Hi. So uh… you wanted to speak to me."

She glared at him, "We need to speak, but this isn't the place. I'm working all day and most of the night. Be in your apartment tomorrow afternoon." She leaned in close to him. "And if anyone learns about you and Miranda going at it, we'll both be in trouble."

Naruto's face turned red, "I'll uhh… make sure that doesn't happen."

They parted.

-Lyra's apartment

Lyra had been starring into the mirror for the past 2 hours, looking at her new form. She probably would have been crying, but this new body didn't seem capable of it. She had changed bodies countless times before, always staying within the human realm. This was her first time leaving that comfort zone. "_Seems like my ability to change form is gone. Am I stuck in this body forever?_" She closed her eyes, the fury that had been burning brightly since she parted with Danzo was beginning to subside. "_Is this really what he wanted to have happen? Me stuck in this alien form. But why? What's the purpose of me being in this body? Danzo has been training me for years, what's the purpose if he was going to take away the only ability that made me special?_" She closed her eyes. "_I guess I should stop thinking about it. Better to hear the explanation in more detail from Danzo himself_." She laid down on the bed and closed her eyes, attempting to sleep. It wasn't night time yet but the thought of this day going on any longer was more than she could bear.


	8. Day 8

Day 8:

-Thunder country

Zuso crawled out of his tent, walking barefoot across the damp grass. He looked out across the horizon, "_Beat you again_." It was the third straight day that he had risen before the sun. He walked to the edge of the camp, "_Looks like they didn't make proper fortifications last night… not that anyone is going to attack a group of 16 ninjas_." He pulled out a picture of Iria, looking her over closely. "_I can't believe we let her slip through our fingers. A group of 16 bounty hunters and we failed to capture a target that was right in front our faces. That said, I didn't expect her to be with another ninja, our client failed to mention that._" Zuso walked into the center of the camp and placed his fingers in his mouth, letting out a whistle that would've woken the dead if there had been any near by.

His group of bounty hunters came to life, filing out of their tents and forming a triangle around Zuso. He looked them over, their jet black uniforms gleaming in the morning light. He held up the picture of Iria, making sure everyone got a good look.

"This is our target." He paused, making sure everyone get a good look.

"We let her get away from us once, it can't happen again. If anyone sees her, alert the rest of your group, then keep her in your sight, don't attempt to capture her until backup arrives." He paused again,

"Does anyone know why she got away last time?" Someone spoke up,

"I would guess genjutsu, or a disguise. Otherwise we would've seen her. The chaos of all those guards running around didn't help either."

Zuso smiled, "You're correct. And how will we make sure that doesn't happen again?"

No one spoke. Zuso smiled, "I guess that's why I'm the brains of the operation." He held up four shiny metallic balls. "I received these from our client. According to them, they will let out a low humming noise if Iria is with a 300 foot radius. The noise will grow louder as you approach her. I'm not entirely sure how this works, but our client has assured me that they will work. I'll keep one for myself and give one to each lieutenant. Each lieutenant will take 4 people with him and search the town. For this mission we'll wear street clothes instead of our standard black gear, we don't want to stand out. We'll break up into groups now and move towards the town, regrouping tonight if we haven't found her."

One of the bounty hunters spoke up, "Is the thunder country going to come after us? We did attack one of their border guards."

"I paid them off. They won't aid us in our search but they won't hinder us either." Zuso looked around, making sure everyone was ready.

"Move out!"

-Lyra's apartment

The pigeon caught Lyra's eye when it was still several hundred feet away. She watched it fly towards her, descending onto her window sill then pecking at the frame to be let in. She cranked open the window and quickly removed the note attached to his leg. "Your services are not needed today, but they will be tomorrow, come at noon."

"_At least he doesn't waste words, although I was hoping for better words, preferably something to take my mind off of the current situation. Or at least a better explanation of what's going on_." She sighed deeply, "_Maybe I can just sleep till noon tomorrow, I really don't feel like thinking about my current situation anymore_." She walked over to her bed and collapsed onto it, closing her eyes and lying still for several minutes. "_This is pathetic, I should get up and deal with the situation_."

Lyra rolled out of bed. "_Wow it smells terrible in here_." She spent the next several hours cleaning, finally stopping when the entire apartment was spotless. "_Guess I should work myself into hysteria more often_." She breathed deeply, "_I feel much better now. Alright, time to feel positive, absolutely nothing but extremely positive thoughts for the rest of the day_." She smelled her arm pits, "_I guess this new body still has B.O., that's something familiar_."

She stepped into the bathroom and undressed, starring in the mirror as she waited for the water to warm up. "_This body is sort of pretty, in an alien kind of way. It's also much stronger than my old body, moving the couch used to take effort, now I can practically move it with one arm_" She stepped into the shower and began her usual routine, filling her hand with shampoo and placing it in her hair. "_O right… this body doesn't have hair, that's gonna take a while to get used to…_" She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "_Only think happy thoughts… no bad thoughts, only happy thoughts_." She looked down, "_I always wished for bigger boobs when I was younger." _Lyra pictured her teenage self, looking in the mirror with her shirt off, wishing her miniscule boobs would grow several bra sizes, which they never did._ "And now I have them, giant blue breasts. Although I don't remember asking for the blue part_." She sank her hand into her right breast, "_Feels more or less human. It's smoother and more elastic feeling, definitely a bit heaver too. But other than that, they feel pretty human. Well, except for being blue." _She sighed,_ "Only happy thoughts. They're perfect, just what I always wanted_." Lyra soaped up the rest of her body and stepped out of the shower, her mood much improved.

-Thunder country

Iria burst into the room, rousing Zeke from his sleep.

"You're up early."

She rushed up to him, whispering in his ear, "I think I'm being followed."

His face grew serious. "By who? Are you sure?"

"No, I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain. I went to a nearby inn to see if I could get directions to a bigger city. I figured it would be easier to gather information on the Blue Novas and possibly communicate with them to clear my name if we were in a larger city. While I was talking to the innkeeper, I noticed someone staring at me. Not just a quick glance but intent staring. After I left the inn, I saw him walking several hundred feet behind me, but there were two other people with him. They vanished several minutes later and I haven't seen them since."

"It's not clear that he was following you but we should probably get out of here just in case."

"I agree."

"Any idea where we should go?"

"Yeah, the inn keeper said we will reach Kiri if we head thirty miles north, we could make the trip in one day probably. It's much larger than this village and we could probably find someone capable of establishing contact with Konoha."

"Sounds like a good enough plan for the moment. We should leave immediately." He paused, "If you were being followed, do you have any idea who was following you? From your description it sounds like it wasn't a member of the Blue Novas."

"No it definitely wasn't. It could be a mercenary, bounty hunter, assassin or anyone else they hired. I don't want to stay around and find out."

"Agreed."

Iria peered out the window, looking to see if anyone was outside the inn. "I don't see anybody, we should leave now."

They walked out the door, heading away from the inn. Their pace was faster than a walk but just slow enough that it didn't draw attention.

Zeke whispered to Iria, "We should stay on main streets, try to blend in with the crowd. At least until we're sufficiently far away from this city."

They spent the next fifteen minutes traveling towards the north gate of the village, trying to avoid wide open spaces where they would be easy to spot. Iria suddenly grabbed Zeke's arm, pulling him into an alley.

"I just saw one of them, he's by the gate we have to exit through."

Zeke peered out.

"He's the one with blonde hair and a blue shirt, standing right next to the left post of the gate, he's kinda tall."

"I see him. He isn't moving around much, looks like he's staying put at the gate."

"We can't leave that way if he is there. Can you do something about him? They are only looking for me, they don't know who you are."

"I could take him out, but not without someone seeing, it's too crowded."

Both of them were silent as they thought.

Zeke turned to her, "I could bunshin myself into you, try to draw him away. When he is gone you slip out the gate. Start heading down the road and I'll catch up to you."

"And how are you going to get away?"

"I'll get out of sight then return to normal form."

Iria took a deep breath. "Alright let's do it."

Zeke looked her over then used illusion jutsu to make himself look like her. "Head towards the gate about a minute after I leave."

Zeke casually walked towards the gate, getting to within 100 feet of the suspected pursuer. The man suddenly noticed him. He began following Zeke, making sure he stayed a good distance away. Zeke continued walking away from the gate, drawing him at least 1000 feet away. "_He took the bait. Iria was right about being followed. Just a few more minutes then I'll lose him and go meet up with Iria._"

Zeke continued leading him on, drawing him farther and farther away from Iria and the gate. "_This should be enough time_." He ducked into an alley, undid the illusion jutsu and then joined a crowd on the other side of the alley. "_They'll never suspect a thing_." Zeke jogged back to where he and Iria had been hiding, "_Good, she left. Time to go meet up with her_." Zeke jogged to the gate and left the city, heading down the road at a decent clip. "_I'll catch up to her in no time_."

As Zeke continued to run the small huts and shops around him slowly gave way to even smaller huts and shops, then nothing at all. "_I must be at least 3 miles away from the village, I haven't seen another person for several minutes_." He sat down on a rock, looking at the vast expanse of wilderness around him. "_Did Iria really travel this far? She should've stopped sooner so I could catch up_. _Guess I should get moving again._" Zeke continued his search, running down the road for almost half an hour.

"_Something's wrong. I should have caught up to her a long time ago. Did she stray off the road? That seems unlikely, she knows I won't be able to find her if she does that._" Zeke turned around 360 degrees, scanning his surroundings for any possible clues. "_Where could she be?_" Panic was slowly starting to set in. "_Should I go back to the village? Maybe she couldn't exit out the gate. It's possible she is still there_." Zeke wasn't very convinced but he didn't have any better ideas. He turned around and started jogging back towards the city, moving almost at a run this time.

Even though he was in incredible shape, having run over 10 miles was beginning to wear on Zeke, he stopped by the side of the road to catch his breath, looking at the outskirts of the village. "_Just about there_." He closed his eyes, taking one last breathe before he continued.

A kunai suddenly flew by his head, even though his eyes were closed he could hear it coming. He instinctively took cover behind a tree, looking for the unknown assailant.

"Who's there?!" No one responded.

"I see you! Come out or I'll attack!" Silence filled the air. "_Is it possible that wasn't aimed at me?_" He suddenly saw the thrown kunai buried in a tree several feet away. "_It has a note attached_." He rushed over, pulling the note off the kunai.

"We have your friend. Come to the meeting point if you want to negotiate for her." The letter was signed "Zuso" Attached was a map showing the location of the meeting point. It was only half a mile away from Zeke's current location.

"_Should I go? This is probably a trap. That said… it sounds like they have Iria_." He sighed, "_I should just return to Danzo, rescuing her isn't my job. But I can't do that. Ugh, I'm too nice for my own good_." He took off through the forest, heading to the meeting point.

-Naruto's apartment

Knock, knock. Naruto walked over to the door,

"Come in."

Sakura walked in, "Is Miranda here?"

"No, she is gone and won't be back for a few hours."

"Good."

Naruto looked her over. "I was expecting you to be furious, you seem surprisingly calm."

"I was furious for a while, but it wore off." She sighed, "You make my life a lot harder by doing stuff like this. Miranda is an unknown outsider, possibly sent by another village. You were supposed to watch over her, not have sex with her. The village elders probably won't be that surprised by your lack of judgment, but it will reflect very badly on me for leaving her with you."

"She came onto me, so it wasn't my fau.." Sakura's glare stopped him midsentence.

"I'm sorry." He looked down, "But I really don't think she is a spy, whenever the high ups decide it is safe to release her, I'm sure she'll just leave and never be heard from again." The thought of that made Naruto visibly sad.

"I don't think she is up to anything either, but that isn't for us to judge. Inoichi still thinks she is suspicious. You can't continue to act in ways that could reflect badly on my judgment. I have spent years getting into the good graces of our superiors, so try not to ruin all that hard work."

Naruto sighed, "I'm sorry." He looked at her, "It'll be hard, but I promise that I won't betray your trust."

Sakura was silent. After a few moments she finally spoke, "When I first found out, I was furious. I was ready to drag you out of your apartment and report you to the hokage. When I calmed down, I realized that I was mainly upset because you're able to have fun and act impulsively, something that I have never been able to do. It was mainly jealousy feeding my anger more than being angry at you for having sex with Miranda."

Naruto couldn't think of anything to say. He settled for putting his arm over her, pulling her into him.

She finally pulled away, "It's alright, I'm not all that depressed." She turned to him and smiled, "So how did you manage to get such an immaculate human specimen into bed with you?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to smile, "Blonde's always have more luck attracting the opposite sex."

Sakura laughed.

-Thunder country

Zeke was only a few hundred feet away from the meeting point. He looked at the clearing from afar, "_doesn't look like anybody is there. This is definitely a trap. I'm strong though, I'll be able to handle myself if they try anything_."

He walked the final several hundred feet to the meeting point, looking for traps the entire time. As soon as he emerged into the clearing a ninja garbed entirely in black emerged from the brush, surrounded by two others wearing street clothes. Zeke recognized one of the two as the ninja that had been standing watch by the gate.

Zeke spoke up, "Prove to me that you have her."

The ninja in black spoke up. "We're in a position of power, not you."

He paused, "Look up at that cliff; at the edge of it you can see eight of my men with your friend. She was quite a doozy to restrain, fought harder than just about anyone I've ever seen. Fortunately it was pretty deserted outside the village; otherwise half the thunder country would know there was a kidnapping by now."

Zeke looked up, he could see nine people on the edge of the cliff, eight of them looked to be restraining a silhouette that resembled Iria.

"_Doesn't look like he's lying_."

"So what do you want?"

"We're a group called"

Zeke interrupted, "I know who you are. You're Zuso, also known as the night fang. You're listed in the bingo book as an extremely dangerous criminal ninja."

"I'm flattered. More to the point, we have your friend and our client will pay a lot of money for her. They prefer alive, but dead is acceptable, which should tell you what will happen to her if they get their hands on her."

"_He must be working for the Blue Novas_."

"So why are you talking to me?"

"Standard procedure for all kidnappings. If you can outbid our client we'll give her to you instead."

"So what's your price?"

"800 gold pieces. And before you try to do something stupid like rescue her instead of paying, remember that you can't take me one on one let alone me and a dozen other ninja."

Zeke knew he was right. "_Shit, I can't possibly come up with that money or rescue Iria, what do I do?_"

Trying to buy himself time, "So how did you capture her? You had no way to know where she was, and restraining her couldn't have been easy either"

"None of your business."

"_Well that didn't buy much time_."

"I can come up with the money in one week, maybe even more than 800."

"You can give it to our client, maybe they will sell you her corpse for that much. You have four hours, if you don't have it by then we're taking her to our client. And don't try to contact the authorities. That will end badly for your female friend."

Zuso and his minions left the clearing.

"_Shit_."

Zeke collapsed onto a tree stump, "_I don't think I can prevent them from handing her over_."

He looked up at the cliff, "_Really_ _don't see anyway out of this_."

"_Could I get the money from Root? No, that won't work, I can't contact them fast enough and Danzo would never give me so much money for a cause that doesn't benefit Root. Unless bringing her to Root would benefit Root somehow, give them leverage against the Blue Novas. No… that would be out of the pot and into the fire for Iria_."

He looked up at the cliff again.

"_This will probably get me killed, but I don't have any choice other than attacking them. I can free her and hopefully the two of us can defeat them. Which I doubt will happen. O well, such is the life of those with a conscience, although I'm rather surprised that mine is acting up so strongly over her."_

Zeke walked into town to buy supplies, a plan slowly forming in his head. When all his supplies were bought, he waited an hour then made for the cliff, his fake money bag slung over his shoulder.

-Top of the cliff

Zuso smiled as he saw Zeke approaching him, escorted by four ninjas.

"Count the money, make sure he isn't a single gold piece under 800."

"You can't see it until I make sure that Iria is safe."

"Fine. Take him over to her but don't let him get close."

The ninjas escorted Zeke over to Iria. As he approached he could see ropes attaching her ankles and wrists to nearby boulders. There were eight ninja around her, each with their scimitars pointing at her. The look of despair on Zeke's face made Zuso smile.

"Count the money."

One of the ninjas opened the bag and looked in, "Not sure if it's 800, but it's a lot." He reached into the bag and started pulling gold coins out. Zuso looked over at Zeke. "_He's trying to distance himself from the bag…_" The wheels in Zuso's brain were turning furiously, he knew something was up.

"Boss, most of these aren't real."

"Get away from the Bag!"

Just as Zuso finished his sentence the bag exploded, killing the ninja standing over it and sending five more off the side of the cliff. Zuso braced himself, avoiding being knocked off his feet. He dashed towards Zeke, who had already severed two of the ropes holding Iria. The ninja guarding her had been knocked off their feet by the blast, six of them were swarming all over Zeke, trying to restrain him. The only thing preventing Zeke from being pinned to the ground was Iria's biotics hampering the ninja. It was clearly taking most of their chakra control to resist being thrown off the cliff.

Zuso reached Zeke, knocking him to the ground and slamming his clenched fist into his face. Zuso continued to pummel Zeke, Iria was clearly trying to get him off, but Zuso's chakra was too strong, she could only slow him down a bit. Zeke managed to roll out from under him, drawing a kunai.

Zuso barked orders to his underlings, "Deal with her, I can handle this one!" He rushed at Zeke with his scimitar drawn, parrying his kunai then spinning around and swinging at Zeke's neck. Zeke dodged, then dealt Zuso a vicious kick to the stomach, knocking him off balance and sending him several feet backwards. "_He's stronger than I expected. But not strong enough_."

Zuso rushed at him, faking a swing. The fake swing had its desired effect, Zeke stabbed forward with his kunai. Zuso grabbed the kunai with his bare hand, releasing a torrent of blood as Zeke tried to rip the kunai free. Zuso sank his scimitar into Zeke's leg, pushing it all the way to the bone. He could see Zeke grimacing as he slid the scimitar down his leg, opening a massive gash as the blade scraped against his femur.

Zuso suddenly lost his balance, falling to one knee. He stood up then fell again as he tried to gain his balance, "_What the hell is this?_" A deafening crack sounded, followed by several smaller ones. "_The top of the cliff is breaking off_." Zuso whipped his head around to Iria, her eyes were glowing white as blue light emitted from her entire body. Another crack, even louder than the last one. And then the top of the cliff broke off.

Zuso was free falling, the trees below coming ever closer. He frantically tried to use chakra to grip the side of the cliff, hoping to stop his fall. He couldn't stop the fall but he did slow himself. Zuso hit the ground, immediately losing consciousness.

-Several miles away

Zeke woke up. The ground was moving below him.

"_Iria is carrying me_."

"Where am I…?" He clutched at his leg, suddenly becoming aware of an overwhelming pain.

"Don't worry you're safe. We're several miles away from the cliff, I don't think we're being followed."

"My leg, I think it's broken."

"I can't help you right now, I'll look at it when we find somewhere safe to stop."

Zeke blacked out.

-Naruto's apartment

Naruto pushed open the door, walking into his apartment. He threw his sweat soaked shirt on the floor then dumped his shoes and socks on top of it. "_I haven't trained that hard for a long time_." His legs felt gimpy as he entered the bathroom and turned on the water. He stepped into the ice cold water, not waiting for it to warm up. He closed his eyes and sighed, letting the cold water run down his back.

"_Did the shower curtain just open?_"

"Hey there." Miranda wrapped her arms around his chest. Naruto jumped, his eyelids flying open.

"Where did you come from?"

She kissed his neck, "I hid in the closet when I heard you coming."

"That's a very stalkerish thing to do."

"I prefer to be called a surprise lover, stalker suggests that you don't want it." She wrapped her fingers around his shaft.

"Miranda, we can't do this anymore."

"We can't? Why not?" She kissed his neck.

"Because… we just can't. We have to stop."

He felt Miranda's lips wrapping around his shaft. He opened his eyes just in time to watch his shaft disappear between her crimson red lips.

"Miranda" His voice was quivering, "We really can't do this, I mean it."

She responded by swirling her tongue around his shaft.

"_I guess there is no way Sakura or anyone else will find out about this_."

He looked down, watching his shaft slide in and out of her mouth. He placed his hands on her head, running his fingers through her hair.

The warm feeling of her slippery soft tongue sliding up down and around his cock just about drove Naruto over the edge. As she looked up and made eye contact with him he began lightly thrusting into her mouth, increasing the pleasure even more.

After several minutes he could feel himself coming close. Miranda apparently sensed it too, she pulled off and stood up, wrapping her arms around the small of his back.

"Take me."

Naruto lined his tip up with her opening, pushing inside. He watched her cameltoe spread apart as the entirety of his shaft slid inside.

"You're so warm and soft inside." He sunk his fingers into her butt cheeks, gripping as he pumped in and out. Miranda wrapped her arms around his shoulders, lifting up her legs and wrapping them around his waist. Naruto was now supporting her entire weight, lifting her up and down to slide his shaft in and out of her. Miranda moaned as his shaft slid in and out, the two of them going at it for several minutes. Miranda looked up at the ceiling, her breathing speeding up as she felt herself approaching the point. They came at the same time, gripping each other tightly as they did.

Several hours later they fell asleep, Naruto's arm over her back as they lay in his bed.


	9. Day 9

Day 9:

-Thunder Country

Zeke opened his eyes. "_I can't see anything." _He began topanic_, "Am I blind? Where am I?_" He suddenly remembered, "_Iria was carrying me, I think I'm with her_."

"Iria. Are you there?"

"Yes, I'm right here. Glad you finally woke up."

"Where are we? Why can't I see anything?"

"We're in a cave, that's why you can't see anything." She breathed deeply, "I think we're safe, I haven't seen whoever was chasing us." After a prolonged silence, "Thanks for rescuing me, I actually didn't think you would come. I know that just thanking you isn't enough but…"

Zeke interrupted her, "It's fine, let's not talk about it."

They were both silent. Zeke reached down to feel his leg, remembering the pain of the mysterious ninja stabbing him. "I have so many questions; I don't know where to start."

"Well start somewhere."

"Why doesn't my leg hurt?"

"I healed it… mainly. You can't walk on it yet, but in about 48 hours you should be able to. You can't feel anything below the waist because I numbed it, but that doesn't mean its better, try to avoid putting any pressure on it."

Zeke tried to sit up, quickly gasping in pain as he collapsed back down.

"You're only numb below the waist, the rest of your body can still feel pain"

"Thanks for the warning." He paused, "Where is that guy? The one I fought."

"I have no idea, I think he's dead. I honestly thought you might be dead when I first picked you up. Sorry about throwing you off a cliff by the way. I panicked and it seemed like the only way."

"It probably was, that Zuso guy had the upper hand. Even with you restraining him he was still stronger than me." He paused, "How did I survive that fall by the way? My last memory is of me approaching the ground at an alarmingly fast rate. That fall should have killed me."

"I used my biotics to slow us right before we made impact, you were still knocked unconscious but you survived."

"Well I guess we both have had our lives saved then." He laughed, "And how about my face, was that spared? Will women still be stopped in their tracks upon looking at me?"

"I'm not sure about your face, but your ego definitely survived the fall." Zeke laughed again.

Several minutes passed without any sound, Zeke finally broke the silence.

"So are you entirely sure that ninja is dead? He seems like the kind of guy who could track us, and I'm really not in any sort of condition to fight him."

"I purposely crossed several streams to get rid of any scent and tried to avoid leaving footsteps. We should be difficult to track."

"Hopefully. Still, one of us should stay awake to watch at all times."

"I agree. Although you can't really lookout while lying on your back."

"I can listen."

"Well that's something I guess."

Zeke closed his eyes, not that it mattered, since it was pitch black anyways. He soon fell asleep, shivering as he lay on the cold rock. Iria stayed watchful and alert for several hours before eventually succumbing to the darkness herself.

-Streets of Konoha

Lyra's eyes swept over the streets, taking note of the people staring at her as she approached the root compound. Her hood and shawl covered every inch of her skin, something that clearly didn't make sense to her observers given the sweltering temperature. "_They don't matter, just keep going_." She passed through the outer building, making her way towards Danzo's chamber. Her heart was racing when she arrived at the door. "_Time to find out if I'm stuck like this forever, I hope not… but I have a sinking feeling that I am_." She breathed deeply before entering. No one was there.

"Danzo…?" The room was silent.

"Hello?" "_I guess he isn't here. But he never misses an appointment…_"

She exited the room, turning around as someone approached. A masked man passed by her, coming far closer than she was comfortable with.

"He's on the roof. He needs to talk to you about something urgent."

Lyra whirled around, "The roof? Why is he on the roof?"

"I don't know, but go meet him."

Lyra raced up to the roof, temporarily forgetting about her blue body related dilemma. She burst through the door leading to the roof, rushing towards Danzo.

He glared at her. "Did anyone see your face?"

She looked at the ground, "Um… no I don't think so."

"Don't look at the ground child, you aren't a scolded dog."

She looked him in the eyes. "No one saw my face."

"Good."

"Alright so I'll get to the point. I needed you to take the form of an asari so you could infiltrate the Blue Nova." Danzo paused, "But before I explain why I need you to infiltrate the Blue Novas, I need to explain why they're here in the first place." He swiveled his head around, making sure no one was near. "The Blue Nova are here to colonize our planet. They mate by merging with the genetic material of their partner, allowing them to create offspring with the properties of both parents. By mating with people from our planet, they can make offspring with their biotic powers as well as our own chakra based powers. I've been giving them information about the various governments, ninja clans and individuals that they're interested in. In exchange, they're going to give Root a large amount of power within their new government once they take over."

"So… that's your plan?"

"Of course not. They aren't going to hold up their end of the bargain, they have no reason to and we have no way to ensure that they do. But it gets more complicated. There's another group known as Cerebus, they're attempting to obtain our biotic powers then leave with them. The agent they sent to this planet is a female currently living with a Konoha citizen named Uzumaki Naruto. Her mission was to be impregnated by him and then leave, carrying this planet's jutsu back with her. I'm not exactly sure what Cerebus intends to do after that but both groups appear to want a monopoly on our chakra. However, the Cerebus agent can't complete her mission since I injected her with a compound given to me by the Blue Novas, that compound will prevent her from becoming pregnant."

"So what are we going to do?"

"For now… continue to study the Blue Nova. Which means you need to infiltrate them so I can learn more."

"How exactly am I going to do that?"

"With a lot of care. I have compiled a log of all the information I have collected from them, it should be enough to fool them at least for a tiny bit. Fortunately, the body you are occupying is that of the second highest ranking asari in their organization, so they probably won't question you even if you seem to be acting strangely." He paused, "This is probably the single most dangerous job I have ever assigned to a Root agent. You're chances of coming out of this alive aren't great, but if you survive, you'll become my most trusted agent."

Lyra was silent.

"Is your silence a form of consent?"

"I don't really have a choice do I."

"No you don't. Not everything in life is about choices; this won't be the first time you're forced to do something against your will."

"When should I return to their compound?"

"Tomorrow morning. It appears that they have recently lost a commando named Iria, they believe she has gone rogue. You're going to assemble a small group of Asari commandos and track her down. On the way there you should be able to learn more about the Blue Novas from the commandos with you, but it will be extremely difficult not to give away the fact that you're not really Biara. However, a small group of asari will be easier to convince than an entire compound of them, which is why you will have to separate from them by going on this mission."

"So the purpose of tracking down Iria is to learn about the Blue Nova with a small group of them instead of the entire compound?"

"That's one objective, but there's a second. An agent of mine named Zeke has gone missing after being sent on a mission to determine the exact location of the Blue Nova compound, which he successfully did. After completing his mission he was chased by a Blue Nova, and I initially assumed he had been killed. However, I just received intelligence from an agent in the thunder country who has recently seen Zeke traveling with strange woman that he couldn't identify. I believe that the woman he is with is the asari who chased him after he located their compound."

"So you think that's Iria?"

"Exactly. Track down Iria and you should find Zeke too. You can kill Iria, I don't care about her. For Zeke, determine if he has gone rogue or if there is actually some beneficial reason why he is traveling with a member of the Blue Nova."

"And if he has gone rogue?"

"Then kill him too."

Danzo turned to leave.

"Wait a second! Am I stuck in this body forever?"

"I have no idea, but that's secondary anyways. Right now, you need to focus on tracking down Iria and Zeke."

"But…"

"Return when you have accomplished your mission."

Danzo left.

"_And I thought things couldn't get any worse_."

Lyra stared out across the city for several minutes before leaving the compound.

-Naruto's apartment

Miranda slowly opened her eyes. "_Mmm… where…o right, I'm with Naruto_." She was still for a while, resting her head on his chest. Her head was lifted rhythmically up and down as he breathed, coming to a rest as he lifted his head.

Naruto nudged her, "Hey."

"I thought you were asleep."

"I've been awake for a while."

Miranda sighed, running a finger along his chest. Naruto kissed her on the forehead before rolling of the bed. Miranda's eyes tracked him as he walked around the bed and picked his shirt up off the floor.

"I'm gonna go make breakfast, you want anything?"

"Sure."

"What do you want?"

"Surprise me."

She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

Miranda's eyes flew open as Naruto's hand smacked her butt. She rolled over and attempted a mean stare but it somehow turned into a smile halfway though.

"Breakfast is ready."

"_Well this is a predicament… I think I might be falling for him_." She closed her eyes. "_How did this happen?_"

"Are you coming!?"

"Yeah I'm coming…"

Miranda rolled out of bed, putting on panties and the shirt she had borrowed from Naruto, the air felt surprisingly warm as she walked barefoot across the cold floor.

"I'm impressed, I thought ramen was the only thing you ate."

"I can make other stuff when guests are over… although you are the only guest I ever have." He paused, "Although you have been here almost a week, so I guess you aren't really a guest anymore, more of a resident." He smiled, saying something that Miranda didn't hear as she fell into her own thoughts.

"_A resident huh… I could see myself living here. I'm happier here than I ever was with Cerebus. Not really sure how I would explain that to the Illusive Man. In fact, I'm not entirely sure if I can explain it to myself_."

"So what do you think?"

"Uhh… what? O… um, I think breakfast was good."

"Breakfast? I asked if you wanted to go to the hospital, see if we can get your mind read by Inoichi again. They will want to do it eventually and since you have nothing to hide it will prove your innocence and finally get them off your back."

"_Except I do have something to hide. But nothing remotely close to what they are looking for. I doubt they could determine or even understand anything about where I came from or my mission. Might as well get it over with_."

"Yeah sure, might as well get it over with."

Naruto smiled, "I doubt it will take long. O by the way, Sakura came by earlier." He paused, "And… well this is going to be awkward so I'll just say it. She saw us having sex, but she didn't tell anyone. That's why I didn't want to do it the other day. She thinks it will reflect badly on her if we are caught while I am supposed to be watching you."

Miranda smiled, "Did you ask if she wants to join in?"

Naruto's eyes opened wide, causing an eruption of laughter from Miranda

"I'm just kidding. A threesome would never work anyways, I'm bad at sharing."

Naruto smiled. "So you want to go now?"

"Yeah sure."

Miranda finished dressing then followed Naruto out the door, heading down the bustling streets of Konoha.

"So… I'm sorry for bringing this up again, but what do you plan on doing if they say you're free to go?"

"I really don't know where I'll go; I have nowhere to return to. I guess I could stay with you for a while."

"A while? That means you'll leave eventually."

"_I don't know… I really don't know. For once I'm actually telling the truth, I have no idea what I plan to do when all this is over_."

"Can I come with you?"

She turned, "Come with me? Come with me where?"

"I don't know, wherever you go."

Miranda was silent. "_Could I bring him back? No, that wouldn't work, the Illusive Man would never allow it. I can't stay here either, since they plan to destroy this planet once I'm done. Which of course means they'll kill Naruto, and everyone else_."

Naruto interrupted her thoughts, "I know you said you have no past memories, but I'm really pretty sure there are things you aren't telling me."

"_You have no idea_."

"Yes, there are things I'm not telling you. Things I can't tell you. But it's nothing about me spying on this country or anything like that." She paused, "Different stuff, you wouldn't understand."

"Well you have to at least try and explain, you owe me that much." Naruto was clearly trying to stay calm but his voice was rising.

"Telling you wouldn't do any good, even if you had the information you wouldn't be able to change anything. I can't change anything either. Things are just going to happen a certain way and that's how it has to be."

Naruto turned around and left. Miranda watched in silence as he walked away.

-Thunder Country

Iria squinted as she emerged from the cave, her eyes adjusting to the noon light. "_I guess we were in there all night. Feels good to breathe fresh air._" She scanned across the horizon, looking for any signs of danger. "_Nothing there. No ninjas, no Blue Novas, no nothing_." She closed her eyes and drew several deep breathes, the idyllic scene appeared almost unnaturally serene given how the last few days had gone. "_Is it really over? Maybe if I just stay here and don't think about them, that ninja and the Blue Novas will cease to exist. Then I could stay here forever. Such malevolent forces surely couldn't exist in such a peaceful looking place_." She sighed, "_But pretending problems away doesn't work_."

Her head whirled around as she heard footsteps approaching. "_How did he leave the cave without me hearing?_"

"Zeke you really shouldn't be up, your wounds are still healing."

"I'm not gonna die from walking 20 feet, I just need to stretch out a bit."

"Fine, but it's your fault if your leg gets worse. I'm not going to heal you a second time."

"You won't need to. It hurts pretty bad but I can walk a little bit, it's definitely getting better." He looked out across the country side, "Pretty beautiful out here isn't it? I almost forgot what sunlight looks like." He paused, "So you think we're safe?"

"I hope so."

"Yeah me too." Zeke sighed as he walked behind Iria, limping as he moved.

"You're limping on the wrong leg."

He froze

"You also can't feel pain below the waist."

Iria's hands glowed blue as he drew a kunai and rushed towards her.

"Zeke!"

Her biotic powers pushed him backwards, his illusion breaking. "_I knew he wasn't dead_." Iria focused her mental power, attempting to break Zuso's neck. "_My god he is strong_." His chakra control prevented her from killing him, pushing back against her biotic powers as he crept towards her inch by inch. She screamed again,

"Zeke! Help!"

Her concentration was broken as Zuso knocked her off her feet, pinning her to the ground as he knelt over her.

"I'm supposed to bring you back alive, but I'm sure dead will work if I have to."

Iria used all her mental power to push the kunai away from her throat as he slowly lowered it, pushing against her biotic powers.

"Please stop. I'll come with you, I'll pay you, I'll do anything. Please."

Zuso was silent as he forced the blade lower. A small stream of blood formed as the kunai sliced the side of her neck, it had taken everything she had to divert it away from the jugular. Zuso raised the kunai above him, the black metal gleaming in the sun as he prepared to stab down again. Iria pushed against his arm with all her mental power, closing her eyes to focus better.

"_I can't stop him, his chakra control is too strong._ _I'm about to die_." Her mind was empty except for that one solitary thought.

"_Time has passed… why aren't I dead yet? And he isn't pushing down anymore."_

Iria opened her eyes. Zeke's outline could be seen against the sun, one hand placed on Zuso's back, the other holding a kunai, dark red blood dripping off of it. The kunai stabbed downwards into Zuso's back, spraying red mist as it exited and entered over and over again."

"Zeke stop! He's dead."

He was breathing heavily, his eyes bulging as he continued stabbing. Iria rolled out from under the dead body, wrapping her arms around Zeke.

"Zeke calm down. He's gone."

"I… I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Iria began to cry, her body visibly shaking. Zeke wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into him.

"Please stop crying, I hate seeing women cry."

"I've never been so afraid, I thought I was going to die."

"Well you didn't." He paused, "Come on, we have to keep moving, we can't stay here anymore."

"Zeke I'm tired of running. Let's just stay here for the night."

He looked over at her, she was exhausted and on the verge of tears.

"Fine… we can stay here for one more night." Iria slowly stood up, "Thanks for not being difficult." Zeke turned away as she walked back into the cave.

"_We're not that different you and I_" He walked over to Zuso's body, watching the pool of blood form around his body. "_I've assassinated more people than I can count. The only difference between us is that I've never failed_."

Zeke turned to walk away, gripping at his wound. "Shit, it reopened."

-Konoha hospital

Miranda walked into the hospital, checking in at the front desk.

"I'm here to see Inoichi."

The woman looked up, "Right this way please, I believe he is expecting you." Miranda followed the receptionist, walking through the white halls of the hospital. "_This building is surprisingly modern compared to the rest of the city_. _Still has that same creepy white corridor hospital feel though, I guess that transcends culture and technology. _"

The receptionist knocked on Inoichi's door, "Miranda is here to see you sir." She smiled at Miranda then hurried away. Miranda shook Inoichi's hand as he greeted her, directing her to a chair. He sat behind his desk for several moments staring at her, finally speaking.

"So the last time I looked into your mind, I saw a variety of confusing images. I saw a strange man with glowing blue eyes and what looked to be some sort of flying orb that you entered. But strangest of all, you appeared to be in outer space. I don't know what to make of the images I saw and thinking about them for several days has only confused me more." He tapped his fingers on the table, looking up at the ceiling. "I need to look again. Hopefully I can see a larger picture and gain a better understanding of the previous images I saw."

"The images were clearly wrong, I obviously haven't been in outer space. Seeing the same false images again won't achieve anything."

"_There's no way he will be able to figure anything out, but I'd rather not run the risk._"

"Maybe… but I still need to look."

"But there's no useful action to take even if you do see those bizarre images again, so why bother in the first place?"

Inoichi paused, thinking to himself. "I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do if I see the same images again. But it isn't my choice, I have to do this. Besides, we can't let you leave Konoha until you are cleared as a non-spy."

"Well I guess we should get this over with then."

Miranda followed Inoichi down the hall, heading into the examination room. She sat down on the bench, anxiously starring up at Inoichi as he put his hands on her head. His face slowly went out of focus as she passed out.

Miranda's head snapped back as she gasped in air, her vision slowly coming back into focus. A nervous look spread across Inoichi's face as he stared at her.

"I wasn't able to see anything."

"So I can go?"

"Yes you're free to go, but you still can't leave the city until the Hokage says so."

"But I'll be able to leave soon."

"Yes I think so. But I don't make the decision."

"I understand."

Miranda smiled at Inoichi as she left the room, rapidly exiting the hospital. "_His eyes were anxious; he definitely didn't look like a man who didn't see anything. But even if he did see more images of the Illusive man and outer space, there's no way he could understand any of it_."

She walked down the street, heading towards Naruto's apartment. "_He's probably telling the higher ups what he saw. Not that they'll understand it either_. _Either way, I need to finish my mission and get off the planet as soon as possible. It will be a pain if the Konoha government sees me as a threat and tries to take me captive_."

Miranda froze as the image of Naruto turning his back and walking away entered her mind. "_Guess I have to do some thinking before I see Naruto again_." Miranda walked the streets of Konoha for several hours, trying to untangle her knot of feelings regarding Naruto. But the more she tried to think about her confused feelings the worse the knot got. As the sun began to set on Konoha Miranda sat down on a park bench and sighed as she looked up at the fading light.

"_Well, I seem to be stuck in my mission. I've had sex with Naruto several times but my biotic method for making myself pregnant doesn't seem to be working. Is there something about this planet interfering? No… that doesn't make sense, I've never heard of the atmosphere or chemicals or whatever else of a planet having that kind of effect. Is it possible that the natives of this planet aren't compatible with me for some biological reason? Hmm… that seems unlikely too, the Illusive man wouldn't have made such a basic mistake that would make the entire mission pointless. So then what could it be_…?"

"_And then there's the other issue… I still have no idea what to do about Naruto. I'm supposed to let him get me pregnant and then leave, but I don't think I can do that. And I definitely don't think I can just leave and let Cerebus destroy the planet after I do. But why…? I've always been heartless, why am I so hung about this particular mission?"_ She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, "_That's a stupid question. I can't bring myself to carry out the mission because it'll kill Naruto, whom I seem to be falling for_." It was fully night when she opened her eyes. "_Realistically, I think the only thing I can do is get myself pregnant and then bring Naruto with me. Although the Illusive man definitely won't allow that. I do have leverage over him though, since I'm the one who will be pregnant. He needs the child and he can't get that without my consent. He definitely won't like it though, I'll have to be careful but I think I can pull this off_. _But before any of that I have to figure out why I'm not getting pregnant. Actually, before that I have to make amends with Naruto. What should I say to him? I guess I'll have to tell him the truth eventually so I might as well do it now. Or I could…_"

"Miranda?"

Miranda's head whipped around, startled by the sudden conversation. "O, hi Sakura. Sorry I didn't hear you coming."

"No worries. So um… what are you doing out here?"

"Well, that's an interesting question. I'm out here because Naruto and I had a fight and I'm currently deciding what to say to him to fix the situation."

"O… well do you know what to say yet?"

"Kind of." She sighed, "I think he might need some time alone though before I see him again."

"You wana sleep at my place?"

"At your place?"

"Yeah, sleep at my apartment for the night, then deal with Naruto in the morning."

"Are you sure that's alright?"

"Yeah it's fine."

"Thanks a lot."

The two of them briskly walked to Sakura's apartment, not talking much along the way. Sakura entered first when they arrived, pulling a mat out from under her bed. "Here, you can sleep on this."

"Thanks a lot."

Mirana collapsed onto the mat, barely waiting for Sakura to put the sheets down first.

Miranda closed her eyes, "God I'm exhausted."

Sakura dropped down on her bed. "Yeah… me too."

After several minutes of silence Sakura spoke up. "So um… why are you with Naruto?"

"What do you mean? I'm with Naruto because you told him to watch over me."

"Well… no that's not what I mean. I meant why are you… well… umm…"

"O right… Naruto told me that you walked in on us. Sorry about that."

"It's fine. I was initially pissed off but I don't really care anymore." She sighed, "Why him though?"

"I've been asking myself that question lately. I think it's because he genuinely seems to love me, and I genuinely seem to love him. Which sounds extremely cliché, but you have to understand, due to the circumstances of where I come from, I've never had a single normal relationship in my entire life. So this is a first for me, meeting someone I can actually be open with and get the same from them. I'm sure you can understand."

"I understand the first part, about having never had a relationship." Sakura sighed, "That's the main reason why I was annoyed in the first place. I work all day getting bossed around by my superiors and have no time to ever do anything else. I don't have time to take a single day off let alone find a boyfriend. Seeing Naruto shirking responsibility and having fun instead of working pushed me over the edge. But I've calmed down now."

Miranda smiled. "Taking orders from superiors and working all day was the story of my life until recently. Just like you, my situation prevented me from ever having any time for myself. Its fun in its own sort of way, I achieved a lot and don't regret it. But I'm glad it's over, at least for now."

"Yeah… that's how I feel too. I don't want to give up medicine, but it would be nice to eventually have a break at some point."

They were both silent.

"By the way, you seem to remember your past pretty well for someone with no memory."

"_Shit… I shouldn't have said all that_."

"Well, I don't actually remember anything, just vague recollections of past events. But I still don't remember…"

Sakura interrupted her, "Its fine. I really don't care where you're from. Your whole story of hitting your head and losing your memory was pretty obviously false right from the start. Getting amnesia from head trauma basically never happens, at least not with mild trauma like you had. But really… I don't care. It's fine."

Miranda was silent

"Does Naruto know that you don't actually have amnesia?"

"He's starting to suspect."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"I have to eventually."

They were both silent.

"So what are you going to do? Are you staying here in Konoha? I assume they'll release you eventually."

"I can't stay here. I have to go back to where I'm from."

"Any chance you'll tell me where that is?"

"I'm afraid I can't. But I have no malevolent intentions with regards to Konoha so it doesn't really matter."

"_If only that were true_."

"I guess that's all I'll be able to get out of you."

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anymore."

"It's okay."

Miranda sighed, thinking to herself for a while before falling asleep.


	10. Day 10

Day 10:

-Streets of Konoha

Lyra's stomach tensed as she approached the Blue Nova compound. "_Walk in, announce that I need to take a few commandoes with me on a mission and leave. Just like that. Quick as possible_."

She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. "_At least it'll be over fast. Either it'll work and I'll be on my way with a small group of commandoes, or I'll be found out and killed. Either way… it'll be fast_."

She had rehearsed the plan endlessly in her head but she was still doubtful of its likelihood of success. "_And here it is_." She could tell she was being watched as she approached the door. Two cloaked figures appeared by her side the moment she entered the building.

"Matron we've been waiting for you. You've been gone a long time."

"Yes I know, I'll explain later. I have to form a group and leave quickly."

"The matriarch needs to talk to you. She says it's urgent."

"I'll talk to her later, I need to leave immediately."

The unknown asari looked at her nervously, "I really think you need to see her. It's not my place to say, but I believe it's an order."

"_Shit. I don't think I can avoid seeing her; it'll raise too much suspicion. Of course… I also have no idea where the matriarch is_."

"Walk with me to the matriarch, I need to ask a few questions." The asari looked surprised but did as she was told, walking with Lyra towards the matriarch's room.

"Have there been any recent developments?"

"Nothing significant. We've heard rumors that one of our commandos has gone missing, I'm not sure if it's true though."

"I'll look into that. Anything else?"

"Nothing of note."

After several tense minutes they arrived at a large black door.

"You may leave now." The asari gave her a funny look, then left. "_I don't think they suspect anything but I clearly don't fit in_."

Lyra knocked on the door, entering several seconds later.

An elderly asari stared back at her. There were no wrinkles on her face but Lyra could tell that she was ancient.

"Matriarch, I was told to come see you."

"Biara, it's been several days. We lost contact with you."

"After killing that root agent I immediately left to search for another root agent based on information I received from the first one."

"Another root agent?"

"Yes, I determined that there was a root agent spying on the organization and left to find and kill him."

"How did you get this information?"

"The female root agent I killed gave me information right before the end in hopes that I would spare her life. I determined that someone was spying on us, but more importantly, that they may be traveling with one of our own agents."

"One of our own agents… are you referring to Iria?"

"Yes."

"_That must be the commando that went missing_."

The matriarch was silent for several moments. "I already know about her, she defected about a week ago, or at least that's what we think. She was sent after an unknown ninja we caught scouting out the compound and she hasn't come back since. We sent a mercenary to assassinate her but it seems he failed."

"An assassin? You mean one of the commandoes?"

"No, a local ninja. We needed someone who would know the terrain."

"You trusted someone outside the Blue Novas?"

"He was a hired killer and so we gave him a contract. We didn't tell him anything about ourselves and he didn't ask."

"And how do you know he failed?"

"We implanted a chip in him… microscopic of course… nothing he would notice. And that chip has stopped moving for a prolonged amount of time."

"Do you think Iria and her "companion" are the ones who killed him?"

"I have no idea."

"Do we know for sure that she turned on us?"

"No we don't. She may have betrayed us, but there could be some other reason why she hasn't returned. It doesn't matter though, we can't take risks. A single traitor could compromise the entire operation."

"I returned to the compound to gather a squad and find Iria."

"I had another mission I wanted you to undertake but I suppose it can wait." She reached into a drawer and pulled out a small device, handing the tiny screen to Lyra. "This will lead you to the tracking device, it'll be up to you from there."

"I'll form the squad now, I plan to leave immediately."

"As I would expect." She paused, "But before you leave, did you manage to absorb parts of that human's genome?"

"_Crap, I had hoped to avoid this question_."

"Yes. In nine months I'll have a child with the abilities of the natives."

"_Not really, but hopefully this will all be over long before they find out_."

"Good. Now move out."

"Before I leave, which commandoes are currently unassigned? I've been gone for a few days so I'm not sure."

"Two members of Jenzia's squad are currently free, you can take them. Will two be enough?"

"Yes two will be fine."

Lyra walked out of the room, quickly walking towards a small crowd of asari.

"Have any of you seen Jenzia's squad? I need to speak with them immediately."

"Matron, we're right over here."

Lyra whipped her head around, making eye contact with two teal skinned asari. "_Is that them? This is probably something Biara would know_."

"Where's the rest of your squad?"

"_This must be them, they responded when I asked about Jenzia's squad_."

"Out on a mission, we're all that's here."

"Well this should be enough. I can't explain the mission right now but we have to move out quickly. Meet up back here in 15 minutes ready to move out."

The commandos saluted and left. Lyra sighed as they exited hearing distance. "_Well this is going decently well_."

-Naruto's apartment

Miranda approached Naruto's apartment, listening closely for any sounds of life. "_Lights are out and I don't hear any movement, must still be asleep_."

She considered bringing Sakura along to act as a mediator, but decided against it. "_I'll just talk to him myself, no one else involved. I owe him that much_."

Miranda reached out to knock on the door, her hand hitting air as the door suddenly swung open. She stared at Naruto the two of them silently making eye. The door shut in front of her.

"Can I come in? I want to talk."

"You had your chance to talk earlier."

"I know I screwed up, but I want to fix things."

There was no response.

"Can I please come in? I have a lot of things I need to tell you."

"_Guess he's too pissed off to talk to me_."

Miranda let out an exasperated sigh, turning around to walk away.

"Will you tell me the truth?"

She turned around to face Naruto. "Yes."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

He disappeared into the darkness of the apartment, leaving the door open for her. Miranda followed him inside, sitting down on his bed. It was dark in the apartment but she could clearly make out a somber expression on Naruto's face.

"So you want everything?"

"Yes."

"Do you trust me to tell you the truth? A lot of it is going to sound pretty far fetched but it's all truth. If you don't trust me then…"

Naruto cut her off, "I don't entirely trust you but just start anyways."

"Alright, just let me think for a few minutes."

When she finally spoke, she told him everything. The Illusive man, Cerebus and their plans for Naruto's home world, where she was from and why she needed to have sex with him. She also told him that she was no longer capable of carrying out her mission due to having fallen for him. Naruto was silent for several minutes after Miranda stopped talking.

"I don't really believe any of that, but I have a feeling that you're telling the truth. It would certainly explain your behavior and a lot of other things about that you wouldn't otherwise make sense." He walked over to the bed sitting down next to her. "Was the part about you falling for me also true?"

"Yes. I didn't want to believe it myself, but yes it's true."

"And the part about them destroying this planet after you leave?"

"I don't know if they're actually capable of doing that, but Cerebus may well be able to pull it off. A disease, nuclear weaponry, EMP… there are ways they could do it."

"And how do you plan to stop them?"

"I don't know. Bringing you back into space with me and refusing to let them have the child unless they spare this planet was my original idea, but it wasn't a very good one. They would take it anyways and then destroy the planet. I think the only possible way to save your world is to let the galactic community as a whole know about it. Then Cerebus would be prevented from destroying it by the various governments. Of course… that may well lead to your planet being colonized. To be honest I don't see any good way to deal with the situation."

Naruto was silent for a long time. "We could just run away, they wouldn't destroy the planet if you didn't return."

"It would slow them down for a bit, but they would send another agent eventually. The same mission would be carried out again. They'll eventually achieve their goals and destroy the planet afterwards."

"So what can we do?"

"Well… Cerebus has to be stopped. Like I said, we could tell the galactic community about this planet, that would probably lead to colonization but at least it would stop Cerebus from destroying it."

"That seems like it would end badly for the people of this planet."

"It most likely would, but it would be better than the alternative."

"Couldn't we try to destroy Cerebus?"

"Not realistically. They're spread out all across the galaxy and no one knows where the leader is." Miranda breathed deeply. "We still have a few days before I have to report back to the Illusive man, so we have some time to think about this." She leaned her head onto Naruto's shoulder, "And I promise I won't lie to you anymore."

His arms wrapped around her, pulling her into him. "I probably would have done the same thing in your situation."

Miranda closed her eyes, falling asleep in Naruto's arms.

-Woods outside Konoha

Lyra dashed through the forest, moving silently but quickly. Her fear pushed her onwards, driving her towards the thunder country, the place where she would most likely die. "_Two commandoes who could find out that I'm an imposter at any moment and we're heading towards two people who are most likely more dangerous than the commandoes. I'm no statistician, but I'd put my chances of survival somewhere between low and very low_." The group had been running in silence all morning, the commandoes were clearly afraid of speaking to Biara without being spoken to, while Lyra was afraid of giving herself away. "_Half the reason for this mission is to learn about the Blue Novas. Guess I have to start sometime_."

"We should arrive at our target just after nightfall."

"Are we going to approach in the dark, or wait until tomorrow?"

"It'll depend on the situation. I'd rather not get us ambushed."

"So… what exactly are we doing? You never told us."

"A commando has disappeared, possibly gone rogue. An assassin was sent to deal with the situation, and it looks like they dealt with him. And that's where our intel ends, we're finding his body then tracking her from there. She may or may not be dangerous, but we're approaching her assuming that she is."

"Are we going to kill her?"

"Possibly. And now I have a few questions for you. I've been away from the base for a while, what's happened while I've been gone?"

"We're not really sure, the higher ups don't tell us what's happening. Rumors spread but I'm not sure how true they are."

"Well what are the rumors?"

"Well, we know that Iria disappeared, that's not a rumor. There's also a chance that one of our contacts on this planet is attempting to betray us. The matriarch seems to be getting restless, she wants us to speed up the operation here. Although we still haven't been told exactly what we're doing here."

"_Well this confirms that one of them went rogue. And the contact that's going to betray them… that's probably Danzo. There's no way they could know about his plans though, unless they inherently distrusted him from the start and assumed he would try to betray them._"

"You said the matriarch wants to speed things up, how so?"

"Well, I'm not really sure… we aren't told things like that."

"Well there have been missions being carried out. You must have some idea based on those."

"Well… we know there have been several assassinations of ninjas in Konoha who have been deemed dangerous to our mission. We also know that the scouts have been going further and further out, scouting all of Konoha as well as the surrounding areas."

"Scouting just to defend yourself usually stays within a small range… massive scouting operations of the kind you describe makes it sound like they're preparing for some kind of offensive. But that can't be true… we don't have enough commandoes on this planet for any kind of large scale confrontation."

"If I tell you something… can I have your word that you won't tell the matriarch you heard it from me?"

"Yes."

"A few days ago I was outside the matriarch's room… and I heard voices. Non-asari voices."

"She had humans in her room?"

"No there was no one in her room. And the voices were turian not human."

"Consorting with turians doesn't sound like something she would do."

"They were definitely turian voices. I stay outside her room long, but I heard several mentions of the words "payment" and "services rendered". I have no idea what the context was though."

"The only kinds of services that turians provide are military ones. Which means she was talking to mercenaries. If she is impatient and wants this done faster… that would make sense. We currently don't have enough boots on the ground for any kind of military conflict, if we were to attempt to forcibly gain control of this planet… it would end badly fort us."

"A few thousand mercenaries would change that."

"You would need more than a few thousand… probably tens of thousands… and starships, bombers, troop transports, heavy artillery and whatever else."

"We very obviously have no way of paying for that."

"Not up front we don't… but if the matriarch offered them some portion of this planet and the people living in that portion… that might be sufficient payment."

They continued onwards in silence, on pace to reach the thunder country by nightfall.

-Thunder country

Zeke's eyes slowly opened, scanning around the cave. "_It's peaceful in here. Maybe if we just hide here for a while things will blow over. Who am I kidding, no they won't_." His gaze focused on Iria. Her arm was slung over his chest, her eyes looking back at him. She smiled.

"Sleeping beauty finally woke up."

"Glad to see you too." He tried to sit up but Iria's weight pinned him down to the ground.

"Just a few more minutes."

Zeke sighed, lying back down.

"So what would you be doing if you weren't here?"

Zeke looked at Iria quizzically, "Feeling curious are we?"

She closed her eyes, "Just trying to take my mind off the situation."

"Well… if I weren't here… I would be… probably entertaining myself. Drinking at a pub, flirting with women, gambling… something along those lines."

"Do you actually enjoy drinking and chasing women around all day long?"

"No not really."

"I didn't think so, you don't seem like the kind of shallow person that would enjoy that lifestyle."

"Using your biotics to read my mind?"

Iria laughed, "I have no such powers, only womanly intuition."

Zeke sighed, "I do all those things to take my mind off my missions. Spying, assassinating, manipulating government officials, betraying friends… I've carried out every sinister mission you can possibly imagine and a few you can't. So if it seems like I'm drinking, gambling and flirting as if my life depends on it… it's because it does. Well, not my life, but certainly my sanity."

"I assumed it was something like that. Believe it or not, my life hasn't been all that different from yours. I've committed some pretty terrible crimes in the name of the Blue Novas."

"What's your coping strategy?"

"Music."

"Music?"

"I play the eluya. It's similar to what humans call a piano but with 800 keys. The keys are controlled entirely with biotics, you don't move your body at all when you play. The music is deeply relaxing; it calms my nerves after missions."

"Sounds more productive than my coping method."

Zeke was silent for several minutes, wrapping his arm around Iria and pulling her closer. "You'll have to show me sometime if we survive all this."

"I'll be sure to."

"By the way, my wound opened earlier but isn't bleeding anymore. Did you..."

"Yes I fixed your leak."

"Thanks."

Iria was silent. Zeke closed his eyes, falling back to sleep.

-Downtown Konoha

Miranda trailed several feet behind Naruto, looking up at the birds overhead as they walked back to his apartment. He slowed down for a second, letting her catch up to him before turning to her.

"I'd thank you for paying for dinner, but I'm pretty sure you paid with money you took out of my piggy bank."

"Guilty as charged."

"O well. At least ramen is cheap."

Miranda went silent for a while, staring at the birds overhead as they walked in silence. She eventually turned to Naruto, gently nudging him on the shoulder.

"I've been thinking about our problem and I might have a solution."

"I really don't want to talk about it right now… can we deal with this tomorrow?"

"I don't think this can wait."

"Unless it involves us doing something tonight then it can probably wait."

She sighed, "Yeah I guess so."

They finished the walk in pleasant silence, both content to simply listen to the sounds around them as they returned to his apartment. As they approached the stairs Miranda wrapped her arms around Naruto, crouched down then hopped onto his back. "I'm too tired to walk up the stairs. Carry me."

"You're too heavy. You must've eaten too much ramen and gotten fat."

She didn't respond, instead smacking his sides with her legs, causing a startled Naruto to dash up the steps.

"See, less complaining and more running up the steps."

"I hate you."

"I think you love me and just don't want to admit."

"Shush."

He collapsed onto the bed, finally managing to dislodge her.

"So you really don't want to talk about how we're going to deal with Cerebus and everything else causing us problems?"

"My god will you drop it."

"Just suggesting we deal them instead of putting it off."

"We can put it off until tomorrow, nothing will change between now and then. Besides, my mind is too burned out to be of much use."

She smiled, rolling over onto Naruto "I guess I can agree to that."

The two of them fell asleep.

Naruto's eyes flew open. "_What is this…? What's happening?_" He slowly came to his senses. "_Miranda's hands are in my pants_."

"Hey there sleepy head. Thought I should wake you up."

"Some way to wake a guy up."

"I hope you aren't bothered by my methods."

"I most certainly am not."

She ripped off his shorts, wrestling with him as he removed hers. He opened his mouth to speak but it was too late, her mouth was already attached to his, intently sucking on his tongue. Her arms wrapped around his body, pulling him deeper into her.

"M, Miri…" He gave up talking as she ground her hips into him, speaking with his body instead. She shivered as his hands ran down her back, slowly making their way down her spine. He had his issues, plenty of them. But it didn't matter, she wanted him badly. She ground her pelvis into him harder as his hands groped her, sinking his fingers into her cheeks. She could feel him getting desperate as he sank his fingers deeper into her, squeezing so hard it was almost painful. A smile spread across her face as she felt him trying to flip her, trying to regain control.

"Not so fast."

She pushed him onto his back, pinning him under her. Her ferocious assault on the inside on his mouth paused briefly as his middle and ring finger slid into her anus, pushing deep as they could then moving in delightful circles. With his free hand he briefly lifted her mouth off of his.

"Miri I…."

She closed his lips with her fingers.

"I know exactly what you want."

Miranda stood up, gesturing for Naruto to sit on the edge of the bed. Without saying a word she sat on his lap, leaning her back into him. Naruto stared in silence as her hips raised off of him, positioning her butt over his shaft. She lowered onto him, sinking half his shaft into her butt before meeting resistance. Naruto groaned as she worked her hips in circles, slowly sliding the rest of the way down. His hands slid down her sides, wrapping his arms around her hips as he gripped her pelvis. He tried to speak again but was silenced as her lips embraced him, kissing him deeply as she worked her hips. The embrace continued for long minutes as she continued to move around in delightful motions. His grip on her hips became increasingly tighter as he came closer to the point, fidgeting with increasing urgency seconds before he burst. With a wicked smile on her face, Miranda stopped moving, sitting still with Naruto hilted inside her. She could feel him squirming under her, desperately trying to pump his hips up into her. Her weight pinned him down to the bed, preventing him from gaining the release he so desired. "Come on Miri…"

"Desert always tastes better if you have to wait for it…" She slowly rose up, sliding back down his length agonizingly slowly.

"You're terrible…" He gave up arguing as she continued to torture him, quickly rising up then sliding down over the course of 20 seconds, repeating over and over in a cycle that kept him rock hard but didn't allow release. The ordeal lasted nearly half an hour, eventually ending as Miranda dropped down for a final time, leaning back into Naruto and deeply embracing him. As their tongues entwined he erupted, releasing into her for 10 full seconds as their tongues continued their embrace. Naruto let out a deeply satisfied sigh as they broke off their embrace, Miranda leaning back into him.

"I told you its better if you wait."

-Thunder country

"Are we sure that's them in the cave?"

"The assassin's body is outside the cave and I can sense two life forms inside. It's definitely them."

"Are we attacking now?"

"No. We're exhausted from running all day long. Besides, I don't want to go charging into the dark if we don't have to. We'll stay awake in shifts, attack in the morning. If they emerge from the cave wake the rest of us immediately."


End file.
